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Roads 



EiRfATlONOFMAN 1^, 
"''•liANDATYPErOP <- 
:CIVILI2E:D 

(SOCIETY. 



A^^ 




JANUARY, 1895. 



N°-l. 



A iM 1 1 u ^f rAre6 mor^t'hly 
mex962)r\e btVolzb To 
tKe improv/emenr 
o/fKe public roA^s 



The use of travelling is to 
regulate imagination by reality. 
— [Johnson. 

And the condition of the roads 
cuts a huge figure in the result. 



C0/NTE:/^T5 

THE MERRY CHRISTMAS TIMES. 

PNEUMATIC vs. STEEL TIRES. 

BILL NYE AS A FARMER. 

CONVICT LABOR ON COUNTY ROADS. 

ICELAND: COUNTRY WITHOUT ROADS, 

SiGRIDR E. Magnusson. 

CONCERNING A LIMESTONE ROAD, 

W. B. Paye. 

HUNTER'S HOT SPRINGS, 

Mrs. J. H. Emery. 

SOME HARD FACTS ABOUT WIDETIRES, 

Mrs. H. W. Moore. 

A NEW USE FOR WALKING DELEGATES, 

J. M. Brewster. 

VENEZIA: THE DRY SIDE OF IT, 

A PLACE WHERE NATURE MAKES THE 

ROADS, 

COARSE GRAVEL: WHAT TO DO 

WITH IT, 

WHAT ROAD IMPROVEMENT MEANS TO 

THE FARMER. 





5TE:RLiN0 ElL|OTT 
. A\6t\&(^ir\0 Erdito? • 

2PearlStfBosT5■;^. 



by IKc 

LEACiUE OPAMeRICANWtltELMEN^ 



Entered at Boston, Mass., Post Office as Second-class mail matter. 



(Copyrigfhted 1894.) 



# 



WITH 



$100 



RAMBLERS AT A $100? 



What will other makers do, 

WITH RAMBLERS AT A lOo? 
'Twill keep their agents mighty blue, 
WITH RAMBLERS AT A loo! 
Will people take some cheaper tire 
Than "G. & J." — their hearts' desire — 
To "boost " the maker's profit higher, 
WITH RAMBLERS AT A loo? 

There are others, that is true, 

LIKE RAMBLERS — AT A loo — 
But none so perfect through and through, 

AS RAMBLERS AT A lOo. 
Will riders buy those cheaper made, 
With high list price (for the cutting "trade"), 
And pass t tie " leader" — highest grade — 
THE RAMBLER AT A loo? 



WE THINK NOT. 

See them and make comparisons at the 

Chicago Cycle Show, 

Booths Nos. 42, 43, 44, 98 and 105. 

New York Cycle Show, 

Booths Nos. 120, 121, 122, 123, 124 and 125. 



CORMULLY &. JEFFERY MFG. CO. 

N. Franklin and Institute Place, Chicago. 

Branches and Riding Academies at 
174 COLUMBUS AVE., BOSTON, MASS. 



Ss Madison St., 
CHICAGO. 



1325 14th St., N. W., 
WASHINGTON. 



29 Union St., 
COVENTRY, ENG. 



Cor. 57th St. and Broadway, 
NEW YORK. 

419-421 Flatbush Ave., 
BROOKLYN. 



$100 



20I Woodward Ave., DETROIT, MICH. 



Mention Good Roads. 





HON. WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

1 am much interested in the cause of highway improvement, and I 
appreciate the good work which is being done by the 
Good Roads magazine." 







\^M (VfS^Y^lo^JLtle^'^ C/AhjUL^^ 






"^s^lh I ' 



Good Ro^ds. 

Vol. 7. January, 1895. No. i. 



"THE MERRY CHRISTMAS TIMES." 

By Sterling Elliott. 
"At Christinas I no more desire a rose 

Than wish a snow in May's new fangled Tnirth, 
But like of each thing that in season grows." 

— Shakespere. 

THAT man Shakespere gave many evidences of wisdom, 
but in the above lines he arose to the dignity of a true 
philosopher. 
He wanted those things which were seasonable and 
proper, and didn't waste precious time longing for that 
which was, for the time, unattainable. 

The tramp, who in August was looking for work and who 
assured a would-be friend that he could only work at his trade, 
and that ' ' his trade was shoveling snow, ' ' was no more incon- 
sistent than are many people who are supposed to be much 
higher up the social ladder. 

The man who makes most headway in the practical world is 
he who shovels snow when there is snow to be shoveled, and 
who beats his snow shovel into a pruning hook for use during 
the pruning season. 

It was related of Jay Gould that he stopped one raw Decem- 
ber day in front of a Wall-street fruit stand, the proprietress of 
which was a withered and sad looking woman, who at one time 
had been in a more comfortable fix. 

Jay selected a large red apple from a pile, upon the top of 
which protruded a battered card, whose soiled face made 
announcement that "four cents each" was the price. He 
placed a nickle in the shriveled palm of the humble merchant, 
who at once began fumbling in the pocket of her faded dress 
for the odd cent. After becoming reasonably sure that she 
wouldn't find it, Mr. Gould said, " You may keep the change, 
my good woman, for are these not the merry Christmas times." 

The waving of a just claim like that is but another form of 
charity, and while Good Roads believes in charity, it does not 
believe in giving money outright to the poor except in cases of 
immediate necessity, which certainly did not exist in the case 
above referred to. 

We believe in a systematic ' ' campaign of education ' ' hy 



•^^ 



4 ' ' THE MERR Y CHRIS TMA S TIMES. ' ' 

which people shall be taught to make the most of their oppor- 
tunities, and judiciously expend the money they do have, how- 
ever little it may be. 

OUR SPECIAIvTY IS ROADS, 

but the same general principle underlying the subject of road 
economics is applicable to all other lines of human endeavor. 

In the wealthy and populous parts of the country where 
stone and money are both plenty, the regular and business-like 
building of stone roads is already pretty well started. 

But for the remote parts where dirt is legal tender, and 
where the population is scarce, and consequently there is too 
little travel over a given road to warrant the more expensive 
systems, 

GOOD ROADS HAS A SUGGESTION 

which we can recommend because it has been tried and found 
to be all right. 

When the soft dirt road gets so that it consists of a couple 
of ruts and nothing else, and it will soon get that way with the 
narrow tires now in use, don't do^ anything to it until after you 
stop and think. 

A famous college instructor once said to a class in surgery, 
" Boys, if you had a case in which the patient had been injured 
so that death was certain to ensue in three minutes if nothing 
was done, what would you do?" The boys made several 
guesses and then the professor said : ' ' Do nothing for two 
minutes except think ; then during the third minute you will 
be more likely to do the right thing." 

Of course when the average farmer sees a deep rut in the 
road his first impulse, when he has any impulse, is to at once 
go for some mud and fill the rut with it, but this is like patch- 
ing his pants by sewing on another hole. The ruts should be 
filled, but they should be filled with something beside dirt. 

What shall be used is an important question, but if they 
will omit the soil, any available material will be an improve- 
ment, for there is nothing which the farmer has, with the 
possible exception of rotten apples, that wouldn't be an 
improvement on dirt. 

Gravel, if it can be found within a few miles, will well repay 
the hauling though crushed stone is better, and either is 
cheaper than dirt even though it have to be hauled by rail for 
fifty miles. 

Next to a gravel or stone road wide enough for both horses 
and wagon, is a road with a hard foundation for the wheel, and 
dirt for the horses to travel on. 

Don't fill ruts with the same material which was squeezed 
out to form the rut, because you know, if you will stop to 



' ' THE MERR Y CHRIS TMA S TIMES. ' ' 5 

think, that the passage of a few wagons will make ruts again, 
and your time and money have both been literally put in a hole. 
Don't worry or get scared over the question of raising lots of 
money to build new stone roads. Don't imagine that it will be 
a great burden to have country road repairing properly done. 
The bridge which we have long since come to, and the crossing 
of which is a live present issue, is how to spend to advantage 
the same time and money which is now spent instead of wasting 
it, as is too often the case. 

"First tie a knot in your thread, so as to save all the 
stitches you afterward make." 



"THE GOOD DIE YOUNG." 

There was a man who never told a lie — 

But he's dead — 
Never said it was wet when the weather was 

dry — 

Never said 
He'd caught fish when he hadn't caught one, 
Never said he'd done something that he hadn't 

done, 
Never scolded his wife, and never got mad, 
And -wouldn't believe that the vsrorld was so 

bad. 
A respecter of men, a defender of -woman, 
Who believed the divine, and in that which 

was human. 
Meek as Moses — he never was understood. 
And the poor man died of being too good. 
And he's dead. 

There was a woman who never had gossiped a 

bit- 
She's dead, too — 
Who hated all scandal, nor listened to it. 
She believed in mankind, took care of her cat. 
Always turned a deaf ear to this story or that. 
Never scolded her husband — she never had 

one ; 
N« sluggard was she, but rose with the sun. 
Never whispered in meeting, didn't care for a 

bonnet 
Or all of the feathers that one could put on it ; 
Never sat with the choir nor sang the wrong 

note ; 
Expressed no desire to lecture or vote. 
For the poor soul was deaf as a post — also dumb. 
You might have called forever, and she wouldn't 

have come. 

And she's dead. 

— JEANNETTE LA ElAMBOY in Outlook. 



IS THERE A MORAIv IN THIS? 

THE bicycle plant of the Lozier Mfg. Co., of Toledo, Ohio, 
was destroyed by fire November 28. The loss in prop- 
erty was nearly half a million dollars. This loss was 
bad enough, though it comes out of people who had it to 
lose. But the worst, loss, the loss which will be most 
keenly felt is that of the employees who lose the opportunity to 
earn that which they need, and through the employees the loss 
reaches the local tradesmen, who get most of the workman's 
money and in turn pay it for the goods they sell, which means 
that it reaches the pockets of still other workmen who produce 
the goods, and so on ad infinitum. 

Here is the item : 

"When seen by Cj/fr/zVz^V representative, Mr. Eozier talked 
willingly upon the subject of the disaster. 'You may state,' 
he said, ' that the city of Toledo is entirely responsible for this 
fire. It would never have happened had there been suitable 
fire protection at our works. There is only one little bit 
of a pipe running out there, which I have seen a solitary 
engine pump dry within three minutes. Then, too, the road is 
in such terrible condition that in bad zceather it would be an abso- 
lute impossibility to get a steamer there. We had fire walls at 
our works, and with plenty of water and good roads we would 
never have burned out.' " 

Now suppose the five hundred workmen and the local store- 
keepers who are directly affected, could have known or believed 
that unless that road was improved, and a larger water pipe put 
in, this thing would have surely happened. 

Would it have happened ? 

Well, probably not. Why ? Because they would have seen 
to it that the improvement was made. Why, again ? Because 
it would have been directly in the line of daily bread. 

Five hundred workmen at an average wage of two dollars 
per day would earn six thousand dollars per week. The earn- 
ings for the short space of one week would build about five 
miles of the finest macadam road, over which not only fire 
engines but all other wheeled vehicles could be hauled with 
ease, at all seasons of the year. It is probable that before all 
those employees are again well at work, even if the factory 
were rebuilt on the old site, enough wages will have been lost 
to make many times the amount of good road which might 
have saved all the trouble, and have averted what we can call 
nothing less than a public calamity. 

Instances are not rare where property has been lost through 
the inability of firemen to get their apparatus over the bad 
streets. A very notable case in point was that in Erie, Pa., 



GOOD ROADS. 7 

some time since, where the direct cash loss, due entirely to bad 
going, would have paved a large part of the highways of the 
town. 

It is easy to figure these things out when it is " too late," 
but it should occur to us that it is not too late and never will be 
to make these improvements in towns which are not yet burned, 
and which are just as liable to burn as were those which did. 

Good roads often tend to circumvent death and disaster, but 
they are a million times more valuable in promoting life, not 
simply existence, but the kind of civilized life which makes 
human development possible, and not only possible but 
practical. 

A WIDE TIRE LAW AMENDED. 

THE law made by the supervisors of Queens County, N. Y., 
providing that all wagons built to carry 2500 pounds 
should be fitted out with tires at least three inches wide, under 
a penalty of $20, went into effect October first. Nearly all the 
great farmers saw at once the wisdom of the law, both on 
account of the fine highways and the easy running of their 
loaded teams, and accordingly widened their tires without 
pressure from the authorities. No one has offered any reason- 
able objection to the regulation. The rub came in the applica- 
tion of one of the details of the act. Under the original 
reading the Justice was allowed no discretion but to enforce the 
law strictly levying penalty at once without mercy, in all cases 
of violation. It turned out that on October first nearly one 
hundred arrests were made by the constables, and as many fines 
imposed by justices of the peace. The majority perhaps of the 
offenders consisted of men who were ignorant of the provisions 
of the law, and since they had no criminal intention urged that 
they should be given a few days, at least, of grace. They 
would then be able and willing to conform to the statute. 
Another class consisted of farmers too poor to make the 
required alterations immediately. But they too stood ready to 
obey the law as soon as they were able. The last, and by far 
the smallest number were seized by a fit of stubbornness and 
took pleasure in defying the authorities. 

Accordingly, the supervisors have wisely amended the Wide 
Tire Law so that the justices may hear and determine all cases 
of violation of the law. The stubborn and lawless offenders 
will now be dealt with in a separate category from the other 
two classes. And the ignorant and poor will be brought under 
the provisions of the new regime as soon as wisdom deems 
practicable. 

The amendment is a worthy testimonial to the humane 
character of the Board of Supervisors of Queens County. — Ex. 



ICELAND: A COUNTRY WITHOUT ROADS. 



BY siGRiDR :e. magnusson. 



1 




Mrs. Magnusson. 



CEL AND is very little known 
in this country. Most 
people know that such a 
place is in existence, but 
think and speak of it as an 
ice field, inhabited by Esqui- 
mos — in fact mix it up with 
Greenland. But Iceland has 
been a civilized country from 
the beginning. The first settlers 
were kings and nobles from 
Norway, who, having been con- 
quered by Harold Fairhair, 
would not submit to his rule, 
but in 874 and following years 
betook themselves with their 
families and all their belongings 
to Iceland where they set up a 
Republic. 

The population of Iceland is at present about 70,000, scat- 
tered over the island, which measures 40,000 square miles. 
Many are the difficulties and deprivations which this hard- 
working, patient people have to suffer, but want of proper roads 
I think is the greatest. 

All communication in the country is effected in summer by 
means of the enduring, sure-footed little ponies, but in winter 
partly on foot. 

There are no roads in the civilized sense of the word, and 
consequently nothing on wheels. During the last few years 
the " Althing," or Parliament, has voted a sum of money 
( liberal for a poor country like Iceland ) for road making. 
But such is the administration of Iceland, that, though they 
procured a capable civil engineer from Norway ( after having 
wasted a lot of money by putting the work into the hands of an 
Icelander, utterly ignorant and incapable, who himself had 
never been out of Iceland, and, therefore, had never seen an 
inch of properly made road in his life ) , the roads were made 
the same width' as the pony tracks were before — just wide 
enough for two bagget ponies to pass each other, instead of 
making carriage roads, which, though somewhat more expen- 
sive at first, would have been infinitely cheaper in the end — 
indeed, they would have paid and repaid for themselves, not to 
speak of the comfort to men and beasts. 



ICELAND. 




Residence of the High Priest at Thingralla, Iceland. 



The want of carriage roads and bridges over the many large 
and dangerous rivers, entirely prevents all improvement of the 
country. Iceland has many resources which might be devel- 
oped if not hampered by this terrible want of conveyance. 

There is no manufactory of any sort in the country, and yet 
the Icelandic wool is considered the best in the world and 
ought to be manufactured at home. 

The wool is exported raw, with the exception of what is 
needed for home use. Every woolen garment woven in the 
country is spun, woven and knitted by hand during the winter. 

These ' ' home-industries ' ' have been of late years exhibited 
in England, and at the World's Fair, and have received the 
highest possible awards at each of the last four great exhibi- 
tions. 

Fishing and sheep farming are the principal industries of 
the country. 

Of late years, England and Scotland have opened up trade 
with Iceland, which has been of great benefit to the people. 
Sheep and ponies have been largely exported, as well as fish, 
wool, cod liver oil, eiderdown, etc. This trade with England 
and Scotland has, to a great extent, done away with the 
" barter " system, which had been the ruin of the country for 
centuries — that is while it was under the monopoly of 
Denmark. 



lo ICELAND. 

No grain of any kind grows in the country, so we have to 
depend on imported bread-stuff. Rye is the staple food, mostly 
imported from Denmark and Russia. The only harvest is hay 
harvest, and the haymaking goes on all summer — the grass 
being cut by scythes. Potatoes and a few other vegetables are 
raised by most families for the consumption of the household. 

"The people of Iceland lead a pure, primitive and industrious 
life, and, as a rule, bear their hardships and numerous difficul- 
ties with patience and fortitude. They are law-abiding people, 
as will be seen by the fact that there are only two policemen in 
the country, both in Reikiavik ( the capital) . 

Women in Iceland have kept their ancient costume faithfully 
for eight or nine hundred years, with hardly any alteration. 
The church dress, or full dress, consists of a black, full skirt, 
just walking length, embroidered at the bottom in wool or silk ; 
a black close fitting jacket, embroidered in gold, or silver, or 
silk ; a silver or silver gilt belt or girdle — sometimes the belt is 
embroidered and fastened with a silver or gilt clasp. 

The head gear is a white, high helmet-shaped linen cap, 
with a veil falling back, and a coronet or stars of silver or gold 
filigree round the head ( hiding the edge of the cap ) . The 
ancient ornaments are handed down in families. 

In former times, when Iceland was a rich country, it was 
considered an accomplishment for a gentleman to make the 
silver and metal work beautifully, so they used to make it for 
their relatives. In this way the large collection of antique 
Icelandic jewelry, which I have exhibited in the Boston Art 
Museum, was made, and it has been handed down as heirlooms 
in different families. 

The every-day costume is a plain black hand-spun and 
woven skirt ( walking length ), a plain jacket of same material, 
a large apron, a necktie, and a black knitted cap on the top of 
the head, with a long silk tassel hanging at the side, falling on 
the shoulder, and surmounted by a silver ornament. The men 
in Iceland have given up their native costume long ago — the 
reason being that they sometimes go abroad to other lands, but 
the women stay at home. 

Sheep raising is a large industry. The sheep are never 
sheared, but the wool is gathered as the sheep shed it, for to 
shear the sheep in that severe climate in spring would mean 
their extermination. 

Another important industry is the gathering of the eggs and 
down of the eider duck. The eider ducks are protected by 
law, and they are very tame, for no one ever shoots or molests 
them. Haymaking goes on from July till September. 

The last of September the birds of passage begin to fly 
southward. The golden plover is the most loved of these. 
His song is imagined to be a song of glory, because the notes 



ICELAND. II 

sound like the Icelandic word which means "glory." The 
children are taught to regard the bird as their especial friend. 

In September the aheep are driven into the folds at the 
public expense and sorted out by their owners. Then the long, 
dreary winter sets in, and life crouches in the cottages and 
sheep folds. The ponies are driven out to shift for themselves, 
because it is impossible to get hay enough for them. At the 
lower end of the big room the mistress of the house and the 
children gather about the spinning wheel, while the men card 
the wool. Silence is preserved in the big room, for there is 
always one, the best reader, who sits and reads the saga to the 
admiring family grOup. The reading of the sagas has done 
much to preserve the original purity of the old Norse tongue. 

The women make the shoes and cut and make the clothes 
for the whole family. 

Religion is enforced in Iceland. The Episcopal IvUtheran 
is the established church. 

There are many good schools in Iceland for men, but no 
educational advantages at all for women. There are Ivatin 
schools and medical schools, and the writer has attempted to 
establish a school for girls, but her money gave out, and for the 
time she was obliged to give up the idea. 

One of the only two policemen in Iceland is a ver>^ good 
poet and has published a book. 



OUR CONTENT IS OUR BEST HAVING.— 5/;a^M/«-e. 

Upon a crutch, her girlish face 
Alight with love and tender grace — 
I,aughing, she limps from place to place, 
Upon a crutch. 

And you and I, who journey through 
A rose leaf world of dawn and dew, 
We cry to heaven overmuch. 

"We rail and frovrn at fate, while she 
And many more in agony. 
Are brave and patient, strong and true. 
Upon a crutch. 

— Exchange. 



A NEW USK FOR " WAI^KING DEIvKGATKS." 

1— EDITOR OF Good Roads: 

^ Dea? Sir — Is it within the province of your magazine 
^ to advocate the cause of good sidewalks ? I think there 
^^^ is almost as much need for their improvement as for the 
roadway itself ; not only in country places, but on the out- 
skirts of cities and large towns, and even in the cities and 
towns themselves. 

I live in the country, and the sidewalk from my residence 
to the railroad station is in a state that language fails to 
describe, and yet when I tell my neighbors that I sink just as 
deep in the mud on the sidewalks in going from the ferry to my 
place of business on one of the main thoroughfares in 
Brooklyn, I do not think they believe me. This, however, is a 
fact, the only difference being that the city sidewalk is not so 
bad all the way, but in places of from 25 to 100 feet each, on_ 
about every other block for a distance of 12 to 15 blocks, and 
on both sides of the street. 

My reason for this communication to you is not only for 
calling attention to bad sidewalks, but also to suggest a possible 
system for procuring better sidewalks, at least in cities and 
towns. 

We are living in an age of workingmen's trade organiza- 
tions, and I think they can be brought to bear on this subject. 
There is some trouble to keep sidewalks in good order under 
our present political city officers, whose business it is to order 
it done, they being subject to strabismal disease when walking 
in front of their friends' property. 

I propose that the Pavers' Union take up the subject, and 
instruct their walking delegates to report at their regular meet- 
ings all places in their district that require repairs ; then let the 
officers of the society report to the city authorities and demand 
attention thereto. This would, as near as may be, destroy 
political pulls, leaving at the same time each owner the right to 
employ such help as he may think fit to do the work, comply- 
ing with the city laws in relation thereto. By carrying out this 
plan, no good citizen who keeps his property in legal order 
would complain, and those who do not should be made to do so 
by enforcing the common laws made for the benefit of all. 

Yours truly, 

James N. Brkwster. 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



CONCERNING A I.IMHSTONE ROAD. 

BY W. B. PAYE. 

1 f /hen the community I have in mind shies a stone at 

III its neighbor across the imaginary line forming the 

^^/ incorporated portion of the town and calls out, 

"Come, Rip, wake up," the sleepy village rubs its 

eyes and says, " Why should I wake up if I want to 

sleep the calm, undisturbed slumber of my grandparents and 

great grandparents ? Why should I suffer my dreams of petty 

village gossip and lack of enterprise to be disturbed by such 

questions as ' Incorporation ' and its consequent higher 

taxation ? ' ' 

"When that committee of yours met and determined that the 
traditions of a century past had ruled you long enough, and 
made you stand up on your feet and walk, of what benefit was 
it to you except affording you the same old-time pleasure of 
grumbling at the increased tax rate ? " 

And so, when its stiffened, unused joints began to relax and 
perform their natural functions, and the town began to move 
forward, it stubbed its toes and then looked for something on 
wheels to make the going easier, and when the wheels jolted 
began to examine the causes thereof and compounded a mixture 
of common sense and crushed limestone for a remedy, with the 
result that its present good roads and village streets are a pride 
to every citizen living within its limits, a pleasure to all visiting 
drivers, a veritable magnet for wheelmen and a new lease of 
life to the horses, which have enough steep grades to contend 
with — a characteristic of all Hudson River towns — without 
the added burden of an ordinary, common, heavy dirt road. 

As in all questions of road improvement and maintenance 
the cost is the first item for consideration, and in this case has 
passed the estimating stage into an actual fact of several years' 
duration. 

Towns situated at no great distance from a limestone quarry 
may well take as an object lesson the excellent surface of a well 
kept limestone road, and for those interested in the subject the 
following figures are briefly submitted : 

The road bed, ten feet wide, is first covered to the depth of 
two inches with finel}^ crushed limestone at a cost per mile of 
$570, the average haulage distance being one and a half miles 
from railroad station. If the road bed is naturally hard, a layeJ 
of stone even less than two inches in thickness will answer. 

Every year from one inch to one and a half inches of finely 
crushed limestone is added, and in little over a week the ordi- 
nary every day traffic of vehicles grinds it to absolute smooth- 



14 



A LIMESTONE ROAD. 




A iviMESTONE Road in a Hudson River Town, Made and 
Maintained as Described. 



ness. As everyone knows, limestone possesses natural cementic 
qualities, and for a road of this description it is almost impera- 
tive that, to secure the best results, the surface be kept 
sprinkled. This is accomplished by an ordinary sprinkling 
cart, horses and driver at a cost of $80 per month. 

To maintain a road of this description averages for the 
season a total cost of $165 per mile, surely an item of exceed- 
ingly small propoitions compared with the results obtained. 

Of course, the old fashioned way of letting the roads take 
care of themselves, after the customary spring pottering, will 
not do in this case, so the services of two men are engaged to 
attend to the roads the entire season, an important bearing 
upon the final economical showing of the total cost of mainte- 
nance. 

In the adjoining district the roads are ' ' worked ' ' by assess- 
ment, or, rather, they are supposed to be ; at any rate a wheel- 
man, especially, will find that some cause, evidently of an 
earthquakey nature, has upheaved the surface of the road into 
a miniature range of Rocky-mountain roughness, over which 
bump the wheels of the anti-good-road rusticus. 

I^et us stop and hold with him a little conversation on the 
subject : 

" Why doesn't he have better roads in his district ? " 

" Because better roads mean more expenditure." 

" How many wagons does he own ? " 



A LIMESTONE ROAD. 



15 




This Photograph Was Taken Within Five Hundred Feet of the One on 
Opposite Page, but the Road Here Shown is Worked on the " AssessmentI" 
Plan. It is a Part of the Same Road and Has the Same Traffic. 

' ' Oh, three or four. ' ' 

' ' How often are repairs necessary ? ' ' 

"Once or twice a year." 

" How many wagon shops does his town support? " 

' ' Two ; employing on an average five or six men the year 
round." 

' ' What is their principal work ; building wagons ? ' ' 

' ' No ; wagons can be bought of western manufacturers 
cheaper than they can be made here. The wagon makers' 
work in this district is principally repairing." 

' ' What makes repairing necessary ? ' ' 

"Bad roads." 

' ' How many harness makers does your town employ ? ' ' 

"Three." 

' ' Is their work mostly repairing, too ? ' ' 

"Yes." 

" Well, my friend, did it ever occur to you that if the com- 
munity in which you live can support, the year round, eight 
or ten men whose business seems to be patching up wagons 
and harness, which are broken by something you can remedy 
by applying part of the money paid to them to the cause of the 
breakage, viz., bad roads, that you really would not be finan- 
cially any worse off than now, and a great deal better off so far 
as wagon wear, horse flesh and increased carrying capacity is 
concerned ? ' ' 

"Maybe so, but these roads were good enough for my 



1 6 A LIMESTONE ROAD. 

grandfather and I guess I'll live through 'em. Will I have 
a cigar ? Yes, thanks ; I never refuse anything I can get for 
nothing. Good day; be sure you take the right-hand road, 
because the left-hand one leads to nothing a mile or so beyond ; 
every stranger gets fooled on that. Sign board ! ! Who's 
going to pay for one ? Some one would be stealing it for fire- 
wood before night, anyway." 

Poor man ! and only one among a multitude ! What kind 
of signboard will best answer the purpose in his case ? 

[The steel helping hand of the L. A. W., of course. — Ed.] 



DRAW THE LINE. 

If you've loaned a friend a " fiver," 

And you think him aU correct, 
But it's longer in returning. 

Than you really could expect, 
When next that fellow comes to borrow, 

Though your purse be rolling fat, 
I would venture this suggestion, 

"Better draw the line at that." 

If, perchance, you're in a quarrel. 

And resort to fistic blows, 
Do not boo-hoo like a baby 

When he hits you on the nose ; 
Boldly stand your ground, young fellow. 

Stay until he knocks you flat. 
Then if my advice is needed, 

" Better draw the line at that." 

Just suppose you've been a fishing 

Patiently from morn till night. 
Though you've tempting lively minnows. 

Not as yet a single bite ; 
All at once your cork goes under 

Out of sight as quick as " scat," 

should think that j'ou were foolish 

Not to " draw the line at that." — [ Reed. 



THEY OBJECTED TO GRADE CROSSINGS, AND ARE 
NOW IN JAIIv. 

^\ CROSSING war in Massachusetts has had serious results 
l\ for some of the participants. The executive council of 
fX the State government has decided that the officials of 
J the Old Colony Railroad who took part in a struggle to 

prevent a street railway track from being laid across 
their line at North Abington in August, 1893, resulting in a 
serious riot, must serve out in jail the sentences imposed upon 
them, as follows: Superintendent J. C. Sanborn for four 
months, and C. S. Bailey, railroad police officer, A. L. Eraser, 
foreman of the corporation's blacksmith shop, E. H. Bryant, 
section roadmaster, and John Bolen, section foreman, two 
months each. The action for which these officials were found 
criminally liable was taken under the advice of the attorney of 
the New York, New Haven & Hartford Company, to which 
the Old Colony belongs, but the legal adviser has immunity 
while, his clients have to be punished for following his direc- 
tions. The action of the local and State authorities in this 
matter is extraordinarj^ At the trial of the case in a local 
court the accused officials seem to have made no defence, rely- 
ing on the legal adviser who got them into trouble to get them 
out of it, and it being taken for granted that if a verdict was 
found against them the penalty would be a fine, which the 
company whose work they were doing would promptly pay. 
When the severe verdict of imprisonment was announced, 
every effort was made by the highest officials of the road to 
have it commuted, and when the court declined to temper jus- 
-tice with mercy, the State authorities were earnestlj'- urged to 
interfere. But the pardon committee refused by a vote of three 
to two to advise the exercise of executive clemency, and the 
executive council refused by a majority of one even to allow 
pardon to be extended thirty days after sentence had been pro- 
nounced. So it seems that Superintendent Sanborn and the 
other reputable citizens who have been declared criminals for 
doing what they considered their duty in protecting the prop- 
erty of their employers, must go to jail like intentional and 
dangerous law-breakers. It may well be doubted whether any 
good effect upon actual criminals will be produced by this 
hard judgment. At any rate, it will not make the prisoners 
into criminals in the eyes of those who know and respect them, 
nor injure their reputation among fair-minded people. — Railway 
Age. 





* ?#■'>*' 




The Doves of San Marco. 

VENEZIA. 

THB DRY SIDE OF IT. 
BY " LE BERT." 

IN the November issue of Good Roads I made a few remarks 
about the "streets" of Venice, which remarks were duly 
commented on by the editor. I desire to make an explana- 
tion this month which my modesty forbade before. 

It is well known that our genial editor of Good Roads 
has at heart the welfare of cycledom and humanity as applied 
to pedal extremities, /. e., when it comes to walking or driving. 
It is not well known that our genial editor ever visited foreign 
climes to preach the doctrine of good roads. It is also not 



VENICE. 



19 




'^^« 







known that our editor once visited Venice, and in the fullness of 
his heart preached the ^ood doctrine of good roads to the 
enterprising Dagos of that famous village. 

I am sorry to state that the result was not a very glowing 
one. In fact it was a flat failure, and after our editor had wept 
a few crocodile tears, he hunted up a secluded spot and wept in 
sorrow and seclusion. But note ! He did not forget that latent 
spirit of advertisement in his sorrow, but borrowed a pair of 
well worn and well patched shoes and lay himself down to rest 
and (incidentally) displayed his advertisement of the poor roads 
of Venice to good advantage. It was then that I photographed 
him as shown above. 

This is my apology. 

Venice has some very fine streets which are not wet. In fact, 
a traveler can pass over and see the entire city by means of 



20 



VENICE. 




Venezians Pounding Fish. 



various back streets and about 480 bridges. These streets are 
paved with flags or blocks of a sort of freestone, and are unique 
by the fact that there are no curbs, gutters or sidewalks. As 
horses are unknown in Venice, you have the entire street your- 
self, and were they not so narrow you could safely use a bike 
and make a beautiful run without fatigue over an even surface. 

One day as I was passing along one of these boulevards 
( about six feet wide ) I saw an interesting sight. I noticed 
three men pounding fish that looked like mackerel, on a stone 
pillow with a wooden mallet. Their stroke was in succession 
like blacksmiths working iron, and by the time they got through 
with the fish he looked very flat indeed. 

By means of a great many signs and a large quantity of 



VENICE. 21 

gall I managed to learn that this was a method of preserving 
fish. They pounded out all juices and reduced the flesh to a 
pulp, and afterward packed them in air-tight boxes with salt, 
where they remained fresh for a considerable period.* It is not 
necessary to pound the average dago in this manner to keep 
him fresh. He is born fresh, and remains that way until he 
dies an unnatural death from being too fresh to some strong 
armed American. 

San Marco place just opposite the famous San Marco Church 
is known to history for its tame doves. These doves are a fix- 
ture of the place, and cause the bread venders of the neighbor- 
hood to reap a harvest of centimes from unsuspecting travelers. 
My own experience is represented in the cut. 

These doves are extremely tame, and any stranger who will 
invest a centime or two in bread can have the whole outfit on 
his head and shoulders if he will only distribute the bread to 
the doves. They are beautiful creatures with white and gray 
glossy plumage and large appealing eyes. In fact they are as 
good beggars as the Italians themselves. 

You will find them here at all seasons of the year perched 
on the old Bell Tower waiting for a sucker whom they may 
bleed. 

Thus we have a few more arguments to support the state- 
ment that Good Roads are not needed in Venice. I am sorry 
that the editor's mission as to subscription list was a failure, 
but as an advertisement of Good Roads he was a success. His 
photo ( though obscured by his hat ) is hereby published for 
the first time, and was often spoken of by the Venetians when 
they dunned me for a nickel for something to drink. In fact, 
they spoke in endearing terms of him, but lamented the fact that 
he forgot to leave the shoes he borrowed. 

[*Our admiration for the people of Venice is at once increased by the statement 
here made, that they are able to keep things -fresh by packing them in salt. Please 
observe that this remarkable discovery was made by the man who is feeding the doves, 
and not by the one who is under the hat.— Ed.] 



' There is nothing steadfast in life but our memories." 



PNEUMATIC VS. STEEI. TIRES. 

RESULTS OF TESTS MADE BY STERI.ING ELLIOTT TO DETER- 
MINE THE RELATIVE RESISTANCE OF METAL 
AND PNEUMATIC TIRES. 

TWO box buggies were employed, one having the usual 
steel tired wheels, 44 and 48 inches in diameter, and 
weighing 254 pounds ; the other having pneumatic tired 
wheels, 32 and 34 inches in diameter, and the vehicle 
weighed 232 pounds. 

The cross diameter of the tires was 2 inches. 

An amount of weight equal to the difference was placed in 
the lighter vehicle, and care was taken to see that the front 
wheels of the two vehicles bore exactly the same weight. 

The surface upon which this first test was made was a new, 
hard pine floor, which was as smooth as such a floor could be, 
and the wheels were drawn lengthwise of the boards. 

The amount of power required to move these vehicles under 
the following conditions was carefully noted by means of a 
registering spring balance, which was attached alternately to 
the king bolts by means of a long cord. 

In each case several tests were made, and when all did not 
exactl}^ agree, owing to slightly varying conditions at different 
points on the tire, we took the average pull. 

The same tests were made with the vehicles empty, and 
afterward when they were loaded with 300 pounds each. 

It was found that the power required to start the pneumatic 
tires from a standstill was 4 pounds, and the power required to 
haul them at a slow walk was 3 1-2 to 4 pounds. 

The power required to start steel tires was found to average 
but 3 pounds, and when started, the power required to draw 
them was but i 1-2 to 2 pounds, showing an average difference 
of about 50 per cent, in favor of the steel tires. 

Next, an obstruction 5-16 of an inch high was placed in 
front of and against the wheels of each vehicle. To haul them 
over this obstruction from a standstill required, in the case of 
the steel tires, 25 pounds ; with the rubber tires, but 11 pounds. 

Then they were drawn at a slow walk over the 5-16 obstruc- 
tion, and it was found that the power required to draw the 
rubber tires was 5 pounds, and the steel tires, 8 pounds. 

An obstruction 7-8 of an inch high was placed against the 
wheels, and the power required to haul over it from a standstill 
was as follows : Rubber tires, 24 pounds ; steel tires, 44 pounds. 
At a walking speed the power required to go over the 7-8 inch 
obstruction was 16. pounds for the steel tire, and 12 pounds for 
the rubber tire. 



TIRE TESTS. 23 

The two carriages were next loaded with 300 pounds each. 
It was then found that the power required to start the rubber 
tires on the smooth floor was 8 pounds, and to haul at a slow 
walk required practically the same force. To start the steel 
tires, loaded, required 12 pounds, and to haul at a walk, 4 
pounds. 

The 5-16 inch obstruction was then placed in front of the 
wheels, and the power required to haul over it was 13 1-2 
pounds for the rubber and 40 pounds for the steel tires. 

Over the 7-8 inch obstruction the power required to haul the 
two loaded carriages was 36 pounds for the rubber, and 69 
pounds for the steel. 

The two vehicles were then taken out of doors and placed 
on a fairly good gravel road. 

The power required to haul the rubber tired vehicle, loaded, 
300 pounds, averaged 20 pounds, and the extreme power 
required at any point was 26 pounds. With the steel tired 
vehicle, over the same road, the average was 41 pounds, and 
the extreme, 79, or three times the resistance of the rubber. 

To haul these two carriages ef?ipty over a moderately sandy 
road, the extreme power required for the rubber was 26 pounds, 
the same as when loaded on gravel, with an average of 16. 
The steel tired vehicle required an extreme of 40 pounds, and an 
average of 22. 

With a load of 150 pounds, the steel tire required an extreme 
of 57, and an average of 40 ; and the rubber an extreme of 38, 
and an average of 16. 

After these tests had been made over this particular piece of 
road, the rubber tired vehicle was again tried, empty, and it 
was found that the hauling of it six times over the road had so 
improved it that instead of the extreme pull of 26 pounds, and 
an average of 16, the extreme was but 16, with an average 
of 8. 

These tests demonstrate conclusively several things : 

First — That if we could have a perfectly smooth track, a 
pneumatic tire would be a decided disadvantage so far as the 
horse is concerned, and of course it would be of little use to the 
rider. 

Second — That on roads as we find them the draft is reduced 
about one-half by the use of pneumatic tires, thus enabling one 
horse to do the work of two on level roads ; on hills the advan- 
tage would be less. 

Outside of these tests, it is well known by all who have tried 
them and must look reasonable to those who have not, that the 
pneumatic tire makes a carriage last much longer. (Whether 
they actually prolong the life of the rider I am not prepared to 
say, but I have ridden on them enough to know that they must 
tend to a higher standard of morality at least,) that they will 



24 TIRE TESTS. 

pass over a "railroad track, at any angle, without having a tend- 
ency to slew, and that they increase the comfort of passengers 
very much. 

lyast, but by no rL.eans least, the pneumatic tire actually 
improves the road at all times and in all sorts of weather. 

It is perhaps too much to hope for, but if a time might ever 
come when all tires used were of the elastic variety, it would 
have an effect on the cost of road maintenance which would go 
a long way toward paying the additional expense of such tires. 
To this add the saving in draft and wear and tear of vehicles, 
and a general revolution might be expected. 

It is not best to count too much, however, on the vehicle 
user to take a direct interest in the economy of road mainte- 
nance. He will usually do that thing which seems to be most 
to his personal advantage at the time he takes his observation. 
Hence I advocate the passing of laws which will so adjust the 
tax on wagons that their owners will find it to their direct 
personal advantage to do what is best for the road. 



$40,000 FOR MUD. 

THE present condition of some of the streets within the city 
limits has awakened a new interest in the subject of good 
roads, and a prominent manufacturer showed a reporter this 
morning a petition which he is circulating with a view to creat- 
ing a reform in the manner of caring for the streets in the city. 

Franklin street and Main street in the vicinity of Elmwood 
Park are pointed to as spots where reform is needed. The 
manufacturer said that the taxpayers of this city would heartily 
endorse any such^ieform as the one proposed, and that several 
well known business men had already assured their support. 

One of the things to be advocated is the use of crushed 
stone for the purpose of street repairing in place of mud. 

Since 1890 nearly $40,000 has been expended by the city for 
the repair of dirt roads. — Danbtiry News. 



Every philosopher is cousin to an atheist. — A. de Musset. 
Eove places a genius and a fool on a level. — Presset. 



DINGLETOWN. 

A PIvACE WHERE NATURE MAKES THE ROADS. 
BY STAMSON. 

IT will not be surprising if the majority of Good Roads 
readers do not know just the location of Dingletown, for, 
had it not been for cycles and their happy riders, its 
charms would have remained unsung — except in bird 
melodies — its pretty byways been unexplored, and these 
particular lines never written. 

It was way back in the days of the good old ordinary, as we 
are in the habit of saying, that the pure amateurs of the 
Solitary Club used to enjoy jaunts over the saw-teeth hills to 
Dingletown, 

Where is it ? Oh, up back of Steep Hollow, in the region 
of Cognawaugh and Stanwich — pronounced ' ' Stanige ' ' by 
the natives. 

Now you know where to find it. You would know it by the 
tall rye and timothy that nods and peers at you over the stone 
walls by the way, and by the golden wealth of sunflowers that 
bend and beckon to you in the breezes about the old farm- 
houses, and by the great orchards that are so lavish of their 
good things every season. 

The old residenter told us that the local name was acquired 
from the fact that every member of the lowing kine family car- 
ried a bell strapped to their necks as they roamed in unfettered 
freedom over wooded hills and through bosky dells. 

The Dingletown roads, though, were something to see, and 
so sinuous as to be almost past finding out. They were only 
cow paths of a larger growth, as the club's pretty new members 
would have said, for they led in any direction they happened 
to, in apparent efforts to dodge big rocks. The roads were of 
common dirt, of course, and were seldom "worked," as all 
nature was only just over the fence, and she was supposed to 
give them all the care necessary. At midsummer they did 
have a few sods and some dry dust piled on the washouts in the 
worst places, which in most cases made the goin' worse, and 
we got in the habit of giving thanks that the farmers placed as 
much of their road-work burden on nature as they did. 

How the denizens of the quaint old way-back place used to 
stare at our big, full-nickled wheels, as we glided silently past 
their weather- browned homes. 

At one house in Bible street an old lady was heard to say : 
" Well, thar ! That's the first one o' them things I ever saw." 
Just why that section was ever called Bible street was a puzzle 



26 ■ DINGLETOWN. 

to us, for on our first trip through there we heard a shocking 
tirade of profanity from one of the open doors of a house, and 
the incongruity of the name was patent to all, and it haunts us 
still. 

The wheels after that seemed to run more swift and noise- 
lessly by that dreaded house, as if it might be a pest house of 
some sort, and we imagined it peopled with imps of darkness 
with long nails and teeth, tangled hair and cloven feet. 

We easily fancied a blight hung over the place, that doubt- 
less made the apples bitter, and the flowers to lack sweet 
fragrance and bright colors. 

Aside from that one black blot upon the almost unknown 
character of the Dingletonians, we had good impressions of 
them, and revelled in the quaint pastoral scenes we rode through. 
At other houses we met a mixed smile of wonder and welcome, 
and the cool water from the deep wells was grateful to us as the 
days lengthened and the heat strengthened. 

How the birds sang and the squirrels chattered and scamp- 
ered as we wheeled through their shadowy haunts on that 
wooded lane, homeward bound. It can safely be inferred that 
we halted on rustic bridges to listen to what the falling waters 
of the little brooks were saying as they crossed under us on 
their way across lots down to the salt waters of the Sound. 

The club's imaginative secretary often pointed out alleged 
camping places, where in the long ago the dusky owners of 
these sunny landscapes had spent the night, or built council 
fires, or had a village. 

It seemed no trouble at all for him to locate exactly scenes 
of love or the chase in connection with the brown roamers 
whose habitat this was so many moons ago, and we used to let 
him go on with his stories to his heart's content, for he never 
wove into them anything harsh or cruel ; they usually wound 
up with a harvest dance and feast by moonlight, Pequot nuptial 
ceremonies, pleasant birch bark canoe voyages to fairy hunting 
grounds, where the poor Indian found no cold winters, no 
hunger, nor thirst, nor pale-faced interlopers to annoy or make 
him afraid. 

But these roads are to this day in statu quo we found them 
in the old days, for I took a select party over them only last 
September and found many of the old familiar washouts, some 
of which had been half-soled with sods, and many bare and 
snaggle-toothed, as if with jaws open ready to snap at every 
rubber-shod wheel passing. 

Why, sirs, I doubt if the whole of the twentieth century 
will be time enough for them to work up to a state of even 
decent roads in Dingletown. 




HUNTER'S HOT SPRINGS. 

BY MRS. JULIA H. EMERY. 

^■^ARLrY in August, 1864, an emigrant train slowly made its 
^ way via the Big Horn towards Virginia City, lured by 
J^ the dull, metallic lustre of the precious nuggets thickly 
^^^ imbedded in the ruby bed rock or mingling with the 
crimson sands of all the mountain streams. 

Weary with travel, the drivers urged their patient ox-teams 
on over the dusty way. Slightly in advance rode a horseman, 
his rifle unslung and his eyes sweeping the landscape in search 
of game. 

The setting sun, like a great fire-ship, was floating low in 
an amber sea, through which crimson-crested billows rolled and 
harmlessly broke, in a flood of rosy light, upon the snow- 
crowned mountains, whose precipitous sides formed the environ- 
ing walls of a wide basin or mountain park, lying 4480 feet 
above the level of the sea. 

The surface of the park was broken by gently undulating 
flower- strewn hills, and cut by the foaming waters of the 
Yellowstone, impetuously rushing from its canj^on home to join 
the great Missouri. 

A gradual descent of some 285 feet above the river, brought 
the lone rider face to face with a picture at once startling and 
unexpected. 

Here and there, before his astonished eyes, soft clouds of 
vapor arose from springs of hot water ; silent and ghost-like 
they seemed to wave and beckon and point into the pellucid 
depths of the boiling pools, while faint, sulphurous gases 
impregnated the atmosphere. 



28 



HUNTER'S HOT SPRINGS. 




Hotel and Bathhouses Sprimgdale. 



In close proximity to these thermal springs were unnum- 
bered tepees or wigwams, showing by their distinctive markings 
that Indians of many diverse tribes were dwelling together in 
perfect harmony ; Crows and Bannocks, Cheyennes, Piegans 
and Sioux, all united by the tie of human suffering ; all feuds 
forgotten in the search for the waters of life with which to avert 
the common doom — disease and death. 

Sore-backed ponies, released from their loaded travois, fed 
upon the sweet, fresh grass ; wolfish dogs pricked up their ears 
and barked ; Indian ' ' bucks ' ' with long black hair falling 
round faces that shone like bronze paused from throwing sacred 
beads into the springs to make "big medicine," and looked 
askance at the traveler, as he gave the Indian salutation, 
"How?" 

Within the lodges dusky squaws crouched around small, 
smouldering fires, preparing food and paying little attention to 
ailing infants that blinked their bead-like eyes in the curling 
smoke. 

The traveler was Dr. A. J. Hunter, and either because he 
was a " medicine-man " or from other reasons, known only to 
themselves, he was permitted to remain for a week in friendly 
relations with the Indians. 

For years he had been a sufferer from acute eczema, which 
had been pronounced incurable by his brother physicians. 

Seven days he bathed in the waters, when, like Naaman the 
Syrian, "his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little 



HUNTER'S HOI SPRINGS. 29 



**«?"' ■^5*ii!g^St«t.«^>iri 



Hot Spring Cottages. 

child, "and he was healed. So almost miraculous seemed his 
cure that he felt as if he had indeed discovered the long sought 
fountain of life and youth bubbling up from the innermost 
recesses of the earth, and he determined to become the possessor 
of these thermal springs, the importance of whose constituents 
he had immediately recognized. 

This determination he carried into effect in 1870 by return- 
ing and taking the land upon which the springs are located as 
a homestead. 

For six years his claim was contested, but ultimately 
decided in his favor by Secretary of the Interior Kirkwood. 
Prior to this time, however, in spite of almost constant danger 
from savage depredations, the doctor had brought his family to 
the springs, where his children, whose infant minds were filled 
with the terms, " jump a claim " and "file a claim," endeavored 
to establish their father's right to the land in a manner peculiar 
to themselves. Having no file, they spent much time in 
"jumping" over a large petrified log. Portions of this log 
still remain, though the major part has been carried away by 
specimen hunters. 

The entrance to an underground way, leading from Dr. 
Hunter's cabin to a place of refuge in times of peril, is also 
' pointed out, while the story of vicissitudes and danger experi- 
enced during Indian troubles sounds from the lips of his 
daughter like a thrilling romance of Western life. 

The springs, at the time of their discovery, were, counting 



30 HUNTER'S HOT SPRINGS. 




Boiling Spring and Snow Capped Mountains in Sight of Kach Other. 

large and small, some twenty in number, varying in temper- 
ature from 148 degrees to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Since that 
period they have increased both in number and volume, welling 
up from clefts in the rock until the aggregate outpour is now 
15,000 gallons per minute. Occasionally the rocky vents will 
be broken and enlarged by some subterranean throe of Nature, 
whose silent workings are little understood by man. 

The project of forming a health resort of the Springs was 
not put into execution until 1884, when a small frame hotel was 
erected, together with rather primitive bath houses containing 
tubs, plunges and vapor baths : the water of the three largest 
springs only being utilized for this purpose. 

A few years later, owing to the failing health of Dr. Hunter, 
the sanitarium passed into the hands of C. B. Mendenhall, who 
enlarged the hotel, improved the plunges, and built a summer 
swimming pool 105 feet square by from 7 to 10 feet deep ; issued 
circulars and invited public patronage, but like his predecessor 
did not seek to largely advertise the Springs as a health resort. 
The wonderful efficacy of the waters, however, together with 
the genial, cordial manners of the host, brought the lame and 
halt and helpless from many quarters of the globe, taxing the 
limited capacity of the hotel to its utmost, and ninety per cent, 
of all who came, returned restored — free from rheumatic pain 
and all diseases of the blood. Now, just thirty years from the 
discovery of these wonderful thermal waters, they have again 
changed hand, and whispers are floating in the air of a new 
and elegant hotel to be built in the near future, a hotel with all 



HUNTER'S HOT SPRINGS. 



31 




Warm Swimming Bath. 



the modern improvements demanded by a first-class sanitarium, 
and capable of accommodating not only those who desire, like 
Ponce de Leon, to drink of the waters of life and live forever 
and ever, but the tourist and pleasure seeker, the angler and 
sportsman as well. Here he may rest on his way to and from 
the coast or the National Park or other points of interest lying 
within easy range. 

Should such a hotel be erected at Springdale, it would meet 
a long-felt want. Springdale lies almost midway between 
St. Paul and San Francisco. It is on the direct route to the 
National Park, and may be reached by either of two "great 
transcontinental routes, the Northern Pacific and the Chicago, 
Burlington and Quincy, with courses so divergent as to in no 
way conflict. The tourist can take his choice of viewing by 
the Northern Pacific the prehistoric battle ground, where the 
elements waged war eternal, till water conquered fire, leaving 
the " Bad Lands " blackened and burned, upheaved and torn, 
with here and there a signal smoke from smouldering fires to 
tell the story of stupendous conquest. If he prefer to visit 
Omaha, that wonderful Western metropolis, he finds upon the 
Chicago, Burlington and Ouincy a scenic route of unparalleled 
beauty, passing through Wyoming and the Crow Agency, the 
latter, the very garden spot of Montana, with its high, protect- 
ing mountains and broad, fertile valleys, watered by cold, 
sparkling streams. 

Since this land has been thrown open to settlers, and the 



32 



HUNTER'S HOT SPRINGS. 



severe drouth of the past summer has opened Eastern eyes to 
the desirability of irrigable lands, this country will doubtless 
soon be settled by agriculturists tired of uncertain results from 
natural rainfall. 

In speaking of these railroads, one can only say, " There is 
no disputing in regard to taste," and, as in Italy, all roads lead 
to Rome, so of these two routes, both lead to Springdale, whose 
bubbling waters softly call, " Come to the fountain, drink and 
live, drink of the water of life." 



' 'Wine colors the face toprevent the appearance of modesty. ' ' 




A WIT.D AND WOOI^IvY TONSORIAIv ADVURTISEMKNT. 




A STRONG OBJECT I.KSSON. 

Patkrson, N. J., Nov. 27, 1894. 

^^DITOR Good Roads: 

^ Dear Sir — I enclose a photograph of a road. I do 

1^ so because I know you are constantly on the alert for 
^^^ such beautiful specimens of the roadmaker's art. I also 
enclose sketch of locality, so that you can appreciate the 
matter to the utmost. This strip of road is about two miles 
long, and when one comes upon it suddenly from the finest of 
fine macadam, if there was not a fair side path, it would dis- 
courage the most ardent ' ' pedal-fanner. ' ' You will notice the 
rut most prominent in the view, which I found by actual meas- 
urement to be ten inches deep on the average. The material of 
the road is Bergen County sand. 

While the views surrounding this particular strip of poor 
roadway are extremely pleasing to the tourist, the condition of 
affairs under his wheel preclude the possibility of enjoying the 
same. In conversation with an elderly lady, in front of whose 
home I poised my camera, I learned that the condition of this 
thoroughfare had been as you see it for many a long year, and 
in the rainy season it is a " sticker " for even the best of teams. 

Going out eastward from the city of Paterson, one bowls 
merrily along over smooth macadam until the bridge indicated 
in the sketch is crossed ; then comes the scene before you, 
which, but for the side path referred to, would be utterly 



34 



AN OBJECT LESSON. 




impassible by wheel. Traversing the two miles, one again 
finds good macadam, and appreciates it fully after such a road. 
Taking into consideration the fact that it is a very important 
highway, and that Bergen County has been almost entirely 
macadamized during the past two years, it is a remarkable 
thing to find such a bit of primitive roadway so near to a large 
city. Chari,e;s F. Gokey. 

[ Two miles of bad road surrounded by many miles which 
are of the best, is an object lesson which impresses the traveler, 
but the object lesson that comes right home to the farmer is the 
one mile of good road he comes on to after struggling through 
many miles of sand or mud with half a load. And while rolling 
easily along the smooth surface, the working of his own mind 
will do more to solve the road problem, so far as he is con- 
cerned, than would volumes of theory. These " sample miles " 
are being built in many places and with most encouraging 
results. — Kd.] 



MORE ROAD EDUCATION WANTED. 

BKNJAMIN P. WARE. 

THAT the subject of good roads is interesting people in all 
parts of the country is not surprising, considering what 
loss of energy, comfort, time and money is sustained by 
all classes on account of bad roads, or at least roads not 
nearly as good as they might be even with the appropria- 
tions made by towns and cities for building and sustaining 
public highways. 

That the several systems now in vogue, experience proves 
to be unsatisfactory, expensive and bad there is no doubt. 

Most of the loss sustained in maintaining roads is from want 
of knowledge as to the best methods. 

Commissioners should be appointed by the several State 
governments, composed of men of the highest scientific and 
practical attainments on the subject, and by their reports, lec- 
tures and other means give public instruction, and to local road 
commissioners, and whose duty should be to examine different 
localities and advise as to the most practical and efficient means 
of improvement in each locality, as different conditions and 
requirements need different methods of building and repairing 
roads. 

The practice of many towns in allowing all who wish to 
work out their highway tax is but little better than highway 
robbery. 

The use of road machines while apparently doing a large 
amount of work do not do the best work as they do not discrim- 
inate in the material applied in grading the road, for they 
scrape up what happens to be at the roadside, which is usually 
loam or sand, that in wet weather makes mud and in dry 
weather dust, and soon finds its way back to where it comes 
from. 

Doubtless a macadamized road is the best, but the cost 
makes them impractical in some States, except in cities and 
main streets of large towns. 

In most towns of Massachusetts we fortunately have abun- 
dance of good gravel that with judicious use of the highway 
appropriations ( generally too meagre ) would make very much 
better roads than we have, but too often material wholly unfit 
is used because more cheaply and easily handled. 

■9 There is no way by which money can be expended to better 
advantage than by putting in tile drains in the centre of the 
roads, particularly where there are springy hills or a moderate 
descent, and emptying into a culvert at the lowest points. It 
is surprising that this plan is not more generally adopted. 



36 



ROAD EDUCATION WANTED. 



Our fathers of seventy-five or a hundred years ago built 
long lines of turnpikes straight over hills and along valleys. 
It has since been ascertained that it is often nearer round a hill 
than over it, and affording an opportunity for a comparatively 
level road. 

It has been suggested by many that the general government 
should build the principal highways in a thorough manner ' ' to 
save the expense to the people." But when it is considered 
that the people are taxed in some way to meet government 
expenses, and that our general government does work in the 
most expensive manner for the ends accomplished, it may be 
well to look at this scheme from a more economical standpoint. 

It is believed that with the amount of money annually 
appropriated for highways, if intelligently and honestly 
expended, our roads should be infinitely better than now, and 
this would lead to a recognition of the great comfort and advan- 
tage, to all classes, of good roads, and thus encourage greater 
appropriations to meet the demand for still more improvement. 
Hence the need of more knowledge in road building. \ 



Well, could you blame ''emf 




■' It is the wheelmen who want better roads." — Exchange. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR ROAD AGITATORS. 

BY C. D. CHAMBERIvIN. 

IF one were to go into almost any section of the country and 
inquire of an inhabitant the condition of the roads, he will 
almost invariably inform the questioner that they might be 
better, and yet ten chances to one he never gave an hour's 
serious thought to the practical question of their better- 
ment. 

It is true that many of our more progressive men are agitat- 
ing the question through scientific and popular journals and 
periodicals like Good Roads, especially devoted to this 
mission, but the great mass of the people have hardly consid- 
ered the subject yet. But this condition can not long remain, 
for the constant effort that is being made through the press will 
at last take hold upon the people. 

When a deer is startled from his fastness, his first idea is 
motion, then direction; the first a matter of emotion, the second 
a matter of judgment, if we may ascribe such a function to an 
animal. Soon the emotional stage will take possession of the 
people, which will soon become an impulse and will then call 
for formulated reasoning for guidance. At this stage the ques- 
tion of how to get at it is of practical importance, and probably 
the local surroundings will have much to do with its successful 
answer. 

The worse the condition of the highway, the easier it will be 
to awaken interest, and probably the greater will be the material 
support. 

The natural steps to be taken at any time and in any place 
are probably four in getting at it. 

First, to awaken interest. 

Second, to enlist support. 

Third, to organize effort, and 

Fourth, to direct procedure. 

In awakening interest it is first necessary that the agitator 
be more or less familiar with the history'- of road building, of 
improved roads, and the advantages accruing by reason of good 
roads both in a social and a pecuniary way. 

The acquirement of a sufficient knowledge of these matters 
to be interesting will not require any very extended study or 
preparation, and even though the information may be exceed- 
ingly perfunctory, yet the prospect of advantages of any kind 
will excite sufficient curiosity to lead to an intelligent investi- 
gation of the matter. 

I^iterature can be secured that will materially aid in the 
investigation. Engineers' estimates of cost of construction, of 



38 SUGGESTIONS FOR ROAD AGITATORS. 

the different classes of improvement, of the advantages of one 
kind of road over another in the cost of moving loads over 
them, marketing produce, periodicals devoted to such enter- 
prise, consular reports, statistics, etc., etc. 

Beside the personal work to be done, the local papers should 
be used. Every issue should mention the subject in some way 
or other that will not fail to arrest the attention of its readers 
and, if possible, to provoke discussion. 

When interest has been awakened, even though the citizens 
do not rise up in a mass and demand the improvements, as they 
probably will not do, for the masses have to be handled as well 
as educated on any new departure ; the next thing is to enlist 
support. 

Care must be exercised to enlist, if possible, the most influ- 
ential, and a sufficient number, and have them so much inter- 
ested as to be pledged to the improvements sought. 

Men are much like sheep when a new opening or departure 
presents itself, all hesitate until two or three make a start, then 
all are likely to follow speedily. 

Over the names of a few such leaders thus enlisted, if prac- 
ticable, call a meeting of the citizens for the purpose of consid- 
ering the matter of improvements. 

At the meeting the disadvantages, inconveniences and 
discomforts of the present condition ought to be fully rehearsed 
and, if possible, every one attending should be induced to add 
his complaint to the general protest. 

Men are always ready to complain and in this matter, con- 
trary to all rule, they should be given every opportunity and 
encouragement, for they thus predicate themselves to the right 
side of the question. 

The next step may now be taken and an organized effort 
made. The very first meeting may and should be permanently 
organized ; a chairman and secretary and committees chosen, 
resolutions of disapprobation and, if necessary, reprobation of 
the present condition of things passed, petitions or communica- 
tions to the necessary authorities prepared and forwarded, or 
delegations sent. 

If the first meeting be too soon to do all this successfully, 
the meeting should be adjourned from time to time until the 
sentiment will support the desired action. 

Now comes the last and most important step, and withal the 
most difficult of exact description, in the promotion of the 
enterprise. The direction of procedtire is that rounding up of 
sentiment, support and effort which will crystalize into a favor- 
able decision of the proper authorities, and the balance will be 
the detail of legislation and the preparation of plans to con- 
summate the work, and is beyond the question, or is rather the 
fruition of the effort of " how to get at it." 



SUGGESTIONS FOR ROAD AGITATORS. 39 

It will require wisdom to consummate this last step, for 
while it may be easy to excite interest and expectation, to enlist 
support or even to organize effort, yet all this will fall short of 
reaching the desired end unless due care is had to the proper 
understanding of the feasibility of the project. The natural 
advantages must be taken into account and made the most of. 
The raising of funds must be so shaped as to be least burden- 
some to the people by whom paid, and the proper distribution 
of the improvements pointed out, and all this must be in aid of 
the proper authorities. 

It can not be successfully foretold just what course should 
be pursued in all cases, for the situations both as to enactment 
and the extent and nature of the improvement projected differ 
in county or town, and in different sections of country and 
different sized towns. 

These are in general the steps to be taken in "getting at 
it," but the important thing is to begin. Begin at once, and 
keep at it ; earn the name of a " crank on roads," if necessary, 
but never let up, follow it tirelessly, constantly. 

The theme is so rational that it must win in the end, and 
then comes the reward. 



ONK might as well attempt to calculate mathematically the 
contingent forms of the tinkling bits of glass in a kaleido- 
scope, as to look through the tube of the future and foretell its 
pattern. — Beecher. 



COWS WERE MADE BEFORE|RAIEROADS. 

A COW wearing a bell was run over and killed on a railway 
near lyondon, England, recently, and the owner sought to 
recover damages from the railway company. On the trial of 
the case, it was proven that the engineer blew the whistle 
loudly, trying to frighten the cow away from the track. The 
farmer's lawyer also proved that the cow was equally attentive 
to business as the engineer, in ringing her bell and exerting 
herself to scare the engine off the track. The jury gave a ver- 
dict for the cow. — Ex. 




Road on Which Wide Tires Only. Are Used. 



SOME HARD FACTS ABOUT WIDE TIRES. 



BY MRS. H. W. MOORE. 



I.THOUGH unaccus- 
tomed to writing for pub- 
lication, I could not 
longer refrain from tell- 
ing what I know about 
the practical benefits to be de- 
rived from broad faced wheels. 
My late husband was a few 
years ago induced to have wide 
tires applied to one of his farm 
wagons. The first cause of his 
interest in the matter was the 
passage of what is called ' ' the 
Michigan Wide Tire lyaw." 

He was a practical, calculat- 
ing man, and as soon as he 
learned that he could save one- 
fourth of his road tax by using 
tires 31-2 inches wide, and that he could have the necessary 
alterations made for about fifteen dollars, it was easy to see that 




Mrs. H. W. Moore. 



FACTS ABOUT WIDE TIRES. 



41 




Showing Effect of Narrow Tires. 



there was no other place where he could invest fifteen dollars 
and get so large an interest as twenty-five per cent. This was 
enough of an incentive to make him try the experiment. 

Although he had been told that such wagons would haul 
more easily, he was not prepared for the surprise which was in 
store for him. 

On the farm twenty bushels of potatoes had been considered 
a good load over the soft ground, but after he had the wide 
tires applied, I have often heard him say that the same team 
could haul fifty bushels over the same field and with seemingly 
greater ease. 

About the time he adopted the " flat-footed wagon " (as the 
editor of Good Roads calls it ) he was appointed pathmaster of 
the road district in which he lived. 

Being very enthusiastic on the subject himself, he soon con- 
vinced other farmers that they could not afford to go on using 
the narrow wheels. He talked it to them until every man in 
the district became a convert to the new idea, and at present no 
otlter tires are used around this neighborhood. 

I recently asked the present pathmaster whether he thought 
that with the entire road tax reduced one quarter, as it would 
be when all the hauling was done on wide tires, there would be 



42 FACTS ABOUT WIDE TIRES. 

enough money raised to keep the roads in repair, as compared 
with the full tax when nothing but narrow tires were in use. 
He replied : 

" Yes, and more too." 

I read Good Roads magazine and have come to be much 
interested in the road question. 

I wish ever5^body could know the advantages of these wide 
tires; if they could, not many of the narrow ones would be 
used. 



GO EASY WITH THE BOYS. 

ANY man who has ever been a bo}^ and we assume that this 
includes all except the " self made " men, will appreciate 
the following from Robert J. Burdette, which we clip from the 
Home Joiij^nal : 

" Of course, there must be punishment for offenses ; punish- 
ment for the sake of discipline. The prohibitory law without 
the penal clause is of very little effect. But revenge isn't pun- 
ishment. It is better by your example, by your helpful com- 
panionship, by your honest counsel, to keep the boy out of 
trouble than it is to whip him for getting into it. The more 
loving and forgiving your punishments the deeper will be their 
impression upon the heart of the boy. Be gentle and patient 
with him. His worst faults irritate you the most keenly 
because you know whence he inherits them. If you are going 
to make a New Testament man, model yourself on the same 
lines. It was Elisha, the prophet, a good man, a holy man 
and a just man, who in righteous anger laid upon Gehazi the 
leprosy of Naaman that should ' ' cleave unto him and unto his 
children forever," a punishment for covetousness and lying. 
But when the Man of Nazareth came into the world he laid his 
hand upon the leper and cleansed him with perfect healing and 
tender words. 

When you have made up your mind in about ten minutes or 
ten seconds that your boy needs a good sound whipping, take 
about three days to think over it — a whipping will keep a 
week — and then see if you can take a stick and beat him." 



'Tis but the heart's own cheer that makes it glad, 
And one's own madness -will drive him mad ; 
It needeth not that other help be had." 

— J7. M.Alden. 




."A PHANTOM ROAD." 



BY E. P. S. MIIvIvKR. 

IT was a chilly October evening when I sat by a blazing 
hearth and watched with interest the varying flames. 
Down the street a group of maroon-clad and gold-braided 
enthusiasts were blowing out of silver and brass instru- 
ments the strains of "Won't You Be My Sweetheart?" 
and like the flames the sounds rose and fell. 

I became very comfortable ; the old home never seemed so 
cozy, and dying sounds of the march in Lohengrin came softly 
floating on the autumn breezes. I began to lose myself or my 
consciousness of immediate surroundings. 

It was a beautiful scene that met my eyes. The bright 
August sun shone upon trees of ripening fruit on the hills and 
vales spread out before me. I was sitting by the edge of a 
road, and what a road ! It was a dream such as my wildest 
fancy had never pictured. 

A road, wide, level, smooth, dustless and permanent. 
Along each side magnificent trees sent aloft their towering 
limbs, through which the road looked defiance at the sometimes 
destructive sun. A sudden shower came swooping down upon 
the road. Alas ! thought I, my dream is to be destro3^ed. 
But, no ! The water only seemed to kiss the surface of the 
road as it passed through and disappeared. The clouds were 
gone, and from a distant vale the sun was reflected from a little 
stream of water. 



44 A PHANTOM ROAD. 

On looking more closely I discovered a well-made conduit 
pouring into this little valley the water which had fallen on this 
road for miles. 

Again I heard an air from Ivohengrin wafted gently to me 
by the breezes which fanned my brow. I looked around, but 
could see no players. I ran with boyish curiosity to. the turn 
in the road, and there I saw a wondrous sight. A band 
mounted on bicycles ! I looked in vain for handle bars. How 
can those fellows keep their seats ? There was the solo clari- 
netist playing without the loss of a single note, and without 
losing his balance or falling behind the piccolo player on his 
right. 

This must be a dream. Surely, I have seen fellows ride 
without touching the handle bairs, but to play an instrument, 
too. I don't understand it ! As they came closer I saw that 
instead of handle bars they had knee-bars by means of which 
they maintained a balance ; some, however, scarcely used these. 

The road was the secret then. I stooped down to examine 
the material of which the road was made, when boom ! came 
upon my ears the sound of one of those abominable, unmusical 
bass drums which infest the American band — I had slipped out 
of my chair, the back log had gone out in one explosive spark, 
and the perfect road remained what it really is, a dream — not 
a reality. 



A RECORDING DINAMOMETER WANTED. 

WE would like to see someone produce a recording dina- 
mometer which would be practical to use on a farm 
wagon or truck. 

At present the result of tests made for the purpose of deter- 
mining the amount of force required to haul different tires over 
a given road, or any given tire over various roads, are not as 
satisfactory as could be desired. 

The extreme pull is easy to get, but the intermediate read- 
ings are somewhat unsatisfactory. 

The proper caper would be a dinamometer having a clock 
attachment and a roll of paper upon which a pen or pencil 
would trace the constantl}^ varying pull. There would be a 
limited demand for such an instrument, but its use would fur- 
nish valuable information and its inventor could count upon the 
hearty commendation of Good Roads. Who will build it ? 




-VL5 



BIIvIv NYE AS A FARMER. 



BIIvL NYE'S farm is hidden away in a broken-off corner 
of a county in North Carolina, four miles away from the 
nearest railway station, and fifteen miles up the valley 
which extends to the south of Asheville, N. C. The 
name of his country seat, Buck Shoals, was given it 
fifty years ago by the natives. Here, in a shallow place on the 
Swannanoa river, the water tumbles over the rocks for one 
hundred yards in a cool and fascinating way. Bill Nye relates 
an interesting incident concerning a plunge bath he took soon 
after locating here : 

"I have changed considerably since I began farming and 
living in the mountains. I came to this section for the first 
time eight years ago, pretty well run down. I suffered from 
nervousness, loss of appetite and the other ailments you usually 
find described in the average patent medicine circular, but 
North Carolina has made a new man out of me. In fact I had 
no idea how tough I had become physically until a few winters 
ago when out on horseback. It was in December, and I had to 
ford a river. A friend — at least I thought he was — lent me 
one of his animals, which I found out afterward had a fondness 
for rolling over in the water. When we reached the middle of 
the stream, he decided to indulge this little eccentricit}^ We 
both rolled. The water was ice cold, but I had become thor- 
oughly warmed up from the exercise, and that and my renewed 
health probably saved my life. Had I been as feeble as when I 
first came to this part of the country, I don't believe I could 
have stood the shock. As I told you, I was warmed up, and 
when we reached the bank, I got a limb from a tree, and before 
I reached home that horse was warmed up also, I can assure 
you." 



46 BILL NYE AS A FARMER. 

The scene in the illustration conveys an idea of the primi- 
tive mode of culture at Buck Shoals. The plowboy, however, 
is not Bill Nye, but the irrepressible Billy Tayloe, passenger 
agent of the Southern Railroad, who is proving to Bill Nye 
that he is a success wherever he is placed. Buck Shoals is 
only reached via his line. 

Bill Nye a farmer ! Strange, but true. We generally sup- 
pose he uses this place for the purpose of making fun and inci- 
dentally money out of it, but while it has given him ideas for 
many humorous descriptions, he actually cultivates the seventy 
acres he has, and raises potatoes, beans, peas, corn and the 
usual garden vegetables, also small fruits, such as berries. " I 
have astonished my neighbors," said he, as we lit cigars and 
strolled down toward the river. " They called me such names 
as ' belgian block farmer, ' and had plenty of quiet amusement 
when I first came here, but after I began to sell some of my 
vegetables, they changed their minds. People don't generally 
know that I was raised on a farm. Father died when I was a 
boy of fifteen, and I had to manage a place of 200 acres in the 
northwest. My experience at that time comes very valuable to 
me now. — Southern Cultivator. 



"STRAW RIDES." 

HOW KVERYBODY MAY KNJOY THEM IN A NEW WAY. 

REFERRING to the use of straw to work into roads on hill- 
sides to prevent washing, the Monmouth Review says : 
' ' The material is capable of much more extensive application 
in road building. The farmers in one of the northern counties 
are trying the new scheme. They take striw and scatter it all 
over the claj^ roads. When it has worked into the dirt and 
settled down it makes a hard, smooth and dustless road. The 
plan is used with great success in many parts of Germany. 



If you waste time trying to discover what you are here for, 
the Lord himself will be at a loss to account for having made 
you. — Atchiso7i Globe. 



CONVICT IvABOR ON COUNTY ROADS. 

ALBANY IvIKKIyY TO TAKEJ THE INITIATIVE IN USING 
PRISONERS UPON THE HIGHWAYS. 
Supervisors to adopt the county road system and introduce a bill into the I,egislature 
to carry it on with convict labor — Kx-Justice I,earned of the Supreme Court 
describes the roads and manner of road improvement in the county — he discusses 
the employment of convicts pro and con, and favors better country roads — experi" 
ment in which he took part. 

^\ I/L the farmers in the county have taken a deep interest 

fj in the new road system which is now before the Board 

^\ of Supervisors for consideration. It is likely to be the 

J most important matter before the board this winter, and 

a strong and concentrated movement is on foot among 

interested persons in this city, as well as in the rural districts, 

to have it adopted this winter. 

While a plan for systematic improvement of the principal 
roads of the county is all that is contemplated just at present, 
it is the aim of those who are most strongly in favor of road 
improvement to use convict labor upon them, which doubtless 
"^ill be the ultimate outcome of the scheme. 

Power to adopt the county road system is given to the Board 
of Supervisors by chapter 333 of the laws of 1893. Under the 
system it is incumbent upon the supervisors to designate as 
county roads such roads as it shall be deemed advisable, but 
preference in this selection is to be given to roads known as 
market roads. A county engineer would be appointed by the 
board. His term of office is fixed at three years, and he is 
subject to removal at the pleasure of the board. 

The expense of maintaining the roads designated as county 
roads devolves upon the county under the new system. The 
supervisors are given power to raise money by the issuance of 
bonds for their maintenance and repair. They are under the 
exclusive jurisdiction of the county engineer and the Board of 
Supervisors, and are exempted from any interference on the part 
of local highway officers in the towns through which they pass. 

Judge Wm. L. lycarned is an authority on the roads of this 
county, and has given close attention to the various methods 
and attempts that have been made to improve them. He knows 
that the farmers of the county want good roads, but he believes 
that the great drawback has been that improvement on the most 
approved plan has been found too expensive. This he con- 
siders the great obstacle to be overcome, when he was inter- 
viewed by a Journal reporter at his office this morning. 

Judge lycarned explained the existing system of road 
improvement in the county. As every farmer knows, each tax- 



48 CONVICT LABOR ON COUNTY ROADS. 

payer is assessed for road improvement, and he may either pay 
the amount of the tax or " work it out " as the expres.sion is, 
himself. Almost in every case where the farmer has resources 
beyond his own labor ajad his farm he prefers to work out the 
tax, and if it is very large, he takes along his boys or hired 
men, each of whom receives a day's pay at a fixed rate, and 
this applies to wiping out the amount of the farmer's highway 
tax. 

Work done in this way. Judge Ivcarned remarked, is not 
done in accordance with any specified plan. The farmer goes 
to any place he desires near his farm, and the usual plan is for 
him to take his horses and scraper along, and carry earth and 
turf from the ditch along the side of the road up to the top of 
it and spread it on. This earth is lower than the top of the 
road. It is rich soil, and is perhaps the poorest in the world 
for the purpose for which it is applied. When the surface of a 
country road has been treated to a laj^er of this kind it is 
muddy to a degree for several seasons until the travel has been 
sufficient to work it down. 

Another evil from this system, the Justice said, is that the 
farmers who do this work come late and go early, and get off 
with as little actual labor as they possibly can. 

Judge Ivcarned told of a short road near his country seat at 
Cedar Hill, down the river road, which was improved by the 
use of crushed stone. The crushed stone was purchased at an 
expenditure of $i a cubic yard and brought from a distance by 
rail. Each carload cost $23, 'and the whole cost of buying the 
stone was out of all proportion to its subsequent usefulness. A 
thin layer of earth was placed over it, but in a few years the 
stone was worn out almost completely, and the road was hardl}^ 
in anj^ better shape than it had been before it was put on. The 
stone usually employed in this vicinity for such purposes is of a 
lime formation, a^d comes from the neighborhood of Bethlehem. 
It does not contain lime enough for its extraction, and is not 
valuable for any use other than to improve the roads. Trap 
rock, however, is considered the best stone for the purpose any- 
where to be found. It is the material of which the Palisades 
are formed. 

Judge Ivcarned noted the difiiculties also of employing con- 
victs on the roads. He mentioned above all the distaste the 
people would have of meeting gangs of men chained together 
or under the keeping of armed men in going about. He con- 
sidered the difficulty of transporting them to or from their 
labors very great, and he expressed the opinion that in this cli- 
mate it would not be possible to have them work the year round, 
while in the most favorable months of the year rain might pre- 
vent them from doing anything. Thus for a long period it 
might be necessary to provide them with employment within 



CONVICT LABOR ON COUNTY ROADS. 49 

their prison walls. The adequate number of guards would also 
be an expense. 

On the other hand, he believed the convicts would prefer the 
out-door work. It would not be a serious matter if a few of 
them should escape. It would certainly give the country better 
roads, and that is what the people want. 

It is probable that Albany County will be the first to employ 
convict labor upon its roads, although the new county road 
system has already been adopted by one of the western counties 
of the States. After the roads not controlled by the turnpike 
companies have been improved, it is probable that some of the 
worst conditioned turnpikes will be improved after they have 
been purchased from the counties and the toll-gates gradually 
abolished. The sentiment in favor of this is strong in the 
county and in the city. It is argued that they retard the 
progress of the city and its suburbs, and that they must go. 

In this connection a story is told of a stranger who moved 
into a village not far from Albany and bought a house. He 
undertook to repair his front stoop one day, when an ofiicer of 
the law came along and told him to stop work. 

" This town is dead," said the officer of the law, " and no 
improvements are allowed. You must stop that at once." 

The stranger didn't understand very well, but he saw from 
the stern face of the officer that he meant what he said. 

" No improvements," he exclaimed. " As I came into town 
I saw men building a new toll-gate up the road. That belies 
your statement." 

" No, it don't," rejoined the other. " That is a necessity. 
It is intended to keep people out." — -Albany Evening Jott^nal. 



CONVICT LABOR. 

A MINNKSOTA I^EGISLATOR'S OPINION. 

T. J. BASTON, member from the Thirty-fourth District, 
J Hennepin County, thinks that the legislature this winter 
should do something to stop the cry which organized labor in 
the State is making against convict labor. Mr. Baston is the 
only country member of the Hennepin delegation, and natur- 
ally is interested in good roads. It is his idea that the convicts 
should be called in from the work which they are now doing for 
shoemakers and others and put to work pounding rock for the 
roads of the State. Such a course would interfere with no 
class of labor and would soon make a great improvement in the 
roads of the State. — Miiineapolis Journal. 



COARSE GRAVEL. 

WHAT TO DO WITH IT. 
BY E. G. OSMAN. 

IN the course of a dozen or more years of active work as 
local ' ' and editor of a daily newspaper in a little city of 
about 12,000 people, I had frequent occasion to criticise 
the local methods of street improvement — never, however, 
I am sorry to say, with any satisfactory degree of success, 
probably because I was known to be "only a theorist." I had 
never " bossed " a street gang, nor handled the pick and shovel, 
and was thought to have no fellow feeling with the ' ' byes ' ' 
who got " a dollar 'n a' quarther a day anny how, whither yez 
git t' the alley or t' Third street. ' ' 

I had discovered, however, that although the fund apppro- 
priated for street improvement, amounting to from $4,000 to 
$10,000 a year, was always spent to the last dollar, yet we 
never had any decent streets in town and few that were really 
passable in wet weather. The natural surface was the usual 
black Illinois soil. The usual method was to "pike" the 
centre of the street, by taking out a narrow strip along side of 
the curb, when there was a curb, with a scraper, and deposit 
the loose black dirt on the roadway and then pile on gravel. 
This gravel was in all sizes, from a grain of sand to rocks or 
cobbles the size of a man's head, and came from a "pit" on 
the river bank. The rocks were, of course, round and smooth. 
Except for a top dressing, there was no attempt made to screen 
the gravel, and "everything went." A squad of Milesians 
with rakes followed each wagon load of gravel as it was 
dumped, drawing out the big stones from the finer particles so 
they would be buried under the finer gravel, on the theory that 
they would make a good foundation for the top dressing. 

I happened to be friendly with a certain chairman of the 
street and alley committee, who was overseer in general of all 
such work, and ventured the suggestion to him once that he 
would have a good crop of stones for the next few years from a 
street improved on the above described plan, even if he did not 
have much of a road ! His answer led me to think that 
perhaps he was right; that "kids" just out of college might 
be able to scan Virgil or sound the depths of meaning in a 
Greek subjunctive, but they were not expected to know any- 
thing about road making. 

Well, the summer and fall were- dry, and, of course, no one 
would drive on the soft gravel road until spring came, when the 
mud in the so-called gutters got too deep ; then they took to the 
gravel as the lesser evil. In about a month, when dry weather 



WHAT TO DO WITH COARSE GRA VEL. 51 

had come, I noticed the street gang at work on that street 
gathering a fine crop of round stones ; and regularly thereafter 
all summer they harvested a similar crop about once a month. 
The following spring the crop was greater than ever. 

It seemed as though every rainfall hailed down more round, 
smooth river stones, and to-day, after several years of periodical 
harvests, there would be no trouble in gathering a wagon load 
of cobbles there any da}^ while the gravel has entirely disap- 
peared. Being a younger man, I never had the "nerve" to 
taunt my friend with the stone crop which I had promised him, 
and he has long since gone out of office, but I will say to his 
credit that he never bragged very much of that particular half 
mile of " improved " street. 

My criticisms on his road were that he had ( first ) made no 
provision for drainage. There was then no sewer on the street, 
and no provision was made to take away the water turned from 
the centre of the street into the scraper- made gutter, where 
there were dips in the street level, and these were pretty fre- 
quent, as the street itself had never been graded. The water 
went to the sides of the street and lay there until evaporated by 
the sun, or had been drawn by capillary attraction to the centre 
of the street under the gravel, destroying the foundation for 
the rocks and gravel. I also objected ( second ) to the use of 
the big, round, smooth stones in the gravel in their natural 
condition. The reader who has examined this kind of river 
gravel will remember that these stones are polished by ages of 
attrition in the current of running streams before their final 
lodgment where now found, and every surface is as smooth as 
polished glass. It stands to reason that such stones can no 
more be solidly packed on a road bed than marbles in a box, 
unless fixed individually like the old Philadelphia cobble 
stones. Thrown loosely under the gravel, every wheel passing 
over loosens them, and sooner or later every one larger than a 
walnut works to the surface. Summer and winter the process 
goes on until every cobble has reached the surface. For 
' ' bobbing up " in the most miserable way and at the most 
inopportune times, Banquo's ghost "isn't in it" with river 
cobbles in gravel on a country road. 

I am not a road builder, nor yet an engineer — simply an 
observer, but my observation has taught me that a solid, smooth 
.road cannot be made in that way, though it is almost the uni- 
versal practice when such material is to be had. But I do 
believe that the material is excellent for the common purposes 
of the average country town or highway, when properly 
treated. 

In the first place, provision must be had for drainage into 
the sewers in the towns ; into tile drains in the country. The 
surface of the road, as I would make it, will turn the water to 



52 WHAT TO DO WITH COARSE GRAVEL. 

the drains, which will carry it away before it can soak into the 
soil under the road bed itself. 

The cobbles in the gravel should then be sifted out, no 
piece larger than a hickory nut to be used under any circum- 
stances — none larger than the size of a hazel nut would be still 
better if used as smooth, round pebbles. The stones should 
then be run through a crusher and broken up into pieces not 
larger than i 1-4 inches. This gives every piece a rough 
angular surface. 

This crushed stone should be used as the foundation, spread 
on thickly, and firmly packed by rolling. And in this form the 
stones will pack solidly, a result which can only be accom- 
plished with broken stones. Over this "foundation the fine, 
screened gravel, mixed with a little clay or hydraulic cement, 
or both, with a little water added, may be spread on and this, 
too, rolled while still wet. When dry it is ready for travel. 

This way of making a macadamized street may cost a little 
more than the old "helter-skelter" way I have described, but it 
will warrant the extra cost because it will be solid and smooth, 
and with care in making repairs, as quickly as needed, it will last 
a long time — many years under all traffic of any ordinary city 
up to 25,000 people, and what is more, the cost is within the 
means of an average village or city. 



TWO MEN FINED FOR SPOIEING A ROAD. 

ON complaint of G. J. Smith, president of the Ulster County 
Road Improvement Association, James Foster and Joseph 
McSpirit, two teamsters in the employ of Wilson Brothers, 
were arrested yesterday by Officer Ryan charged with violating 
the Wide Tire Ordinance. They were arraigned before the 
Recorder and fined $50 each. In default of the fine, they were 
committed to jail for thirt)^ days. They had over five tons of 
stone on each of their wagons, while the law only permits two 
and one-half tons to be drawn on a narrow tired wagon. Wil- 
son Brothers had a tussle with the Wide Tire Ordinance several 
years ago, appealed from a decision of the Recorder and were 
beaten. It is rather hard on their employes to be arrested and 
imprisoned, but it is high time the law is enforced. — Kingston^ 
N. v., Leader. 



ROAD IMPROVEMENT AND THE FARMER. 

BY C. K. ESTABROOK. 
[Extract from a paper read at a Wisconsin Farmers' Institute.] 

SHE present system of paying highway taxes, figuratively 
designated as "working them out," is admittedly bad 
and can be easily remedied, but an attempt to make a 
change in this direction would undoubtedly meet with 
opposition, hence I have avoided discussing that subject, 
preferring to let the several propositions stand alone and be dis- 
cussed and considered on their respective merits. The subject 
of good roads has received so much discussion in the public 
press lately, and there seems to be such a uniform concensus 
of opinion that something must be done in this direction, little 
more remains to be done than to devise some general plan 
which shall not only be feasible but generally acceptable. 
Good roads mean a great deal more than mere convenience. 
They mean more than saving money, which, however, is a 
matter of no small importance. They mean a more intimate 
relationship between the city and country people, to the mutual 
advantage of both. They mean that living in the country for 
six months in the year shall not be practical isolation. 

Poor roads keep the farmer and his family at home at that 
season of the year when they have the most leisure, when time 
hangs heavily, when it could and would add to their enjoyment 
socially, and advantage educationally, if a frequent drive to the 
town or city, or a visit among the neighbors and friends living 
at a distance of a few miles could be taken. 

ADVANTAGES OF GOOD ROADS. 

The longing of many young men and women to escape from 
the farm is largely traceable to the isolation caused by the mud 
embargoes. Good roads mean better prices for the farmers 
located a few miles away from the market town, because the 
present condition of the highways compels the marketing of the 
products of such farms at the times when the roads are good 
and the market prices usually lowest. Good roads would 
permit the average purchaser of farm produce living in towns 
and cities, to buy his stock of such articles at a lower price than 
at present. 

Indeed it seems to me that no more important topic in a 
financial and social way has of late engaged the attention of 
the public. If, then, this subject is of such prime importance, 
the necessity of moving with great care will be apparent. As 
indicated above, it seems to me wisest to commence with a 
system of country roads branching out from the county towns. 



54 ROAD IMPRO VEMENT AND THE FARMER. 

ultimately to extend from county seat to county seat. The 
enterprise being of such general public interest to the people of 
the whole State, uniformity in plan and entire freedom from 
local influence in the selection of a route or the acceptance of 
work done being so important to general success of the under- 
taking, the making of the plans and the surveys, and in a 
measure the general superintendence should be under the 
direction of a State engineer, whose expenses should be borne 
by the State at large. Subject to the general supervision of the 
State engineer, the management of the improvement should be 
under the control of the county board or other county official 
within their respective counties. 



CONVICT I.ABOR ON TEXAS ROADS. 

A CORRESPONDENT of the San Antonio Express calls 
t\ attention to two questions of supreme public importance 
pressing for solution at the present time in Texas. 

One of these questions is " How to obtain good roads " and 
the other " How to employ convict labor," and to his mind the 
second question suggests the answer to the first. He takes the 
view which the Post has long and persistently urged, that 
honest labor should not be compelled to compete in any line 
with convicts, and that some means should be found for 
employing their services which would make them pay for their 
keep, which should not be open to the objection which honest 
labor properly urges. The necessity for improved public high- 
ways is everywhere apparent, and the problem of how to pro- 
vide them has engaged public attention as one difficult of solu- 
tion. The counties and local communities have tried in a 
feeble way to improve roads, and it must be admitted that in 
some instances they have accomplished a good deal, but the 
means at their command have not been sufficient to enable them 
to more than make a start in the desired direction. The entire 
State needs a better system of roads, and to what better use 
could the convicts be put than in supplying this need? Of 
course a plan could be devised by which the sections of the 
State directly benefited would be required to remunerate the 
State for the use of the convict labor so that those localities 
soonest to appreciate and secure the needed road improvements 
would have the first benefits, and the State convicts would be 
constantly employed in useful labor that would be of the utmost 
benefit to the whole people of the whole State without in any 
degree conflicting with honest labor. As the Express corre- 
spondent suggests, the question should be agitated by the press 
until the Eegislature is forced to take some action in regard to 
it, or at least give it due consideration. — Hotiston Post. 



MASSACHirSHTTS ROADS. 

THE State Highway Commission is expected to ask for a 
million dollars from the lyegislature this winter, for the 
work which that body has taken in hand. There is no better 
use to be made of the people's money than to put it into 
improvements such as those which are planned under this com- 
mission. 

The need of better roads in Massachusetts was known to 
exist before the Highway Commission was called into exist- 
ence. It is demonstrated now by the number of applications 
for State roads which have come in under the new law. These 
already number more than one hundred, calling for nearly 500 
miles of road. It is an enterprise which may be expected to 
grow as the advantages of good roads, constructed under this 
system, become apparent ; but neither its great extent nor its 
great cost should deter the State from carrying it on liberally 
and actively. 

The system of State roads is not only a benefit in itself, but 
in the construction of the new highways there is an opportunity 
for the employment of labor, which has no little importance. — 
Boston Post. 



A JUSTIFIABLE BOYCOTT SUGGESTED. 

ANOTHER clutch on the throats of the masses, by a great 
greedy, grasping and ghoulish monopoly ! Poor people 
who have already been brought to starvation's door by this 
monster of oppression and cruelty are to be loaded down with 
still heavier burdens. They should not submit to it. They 
should rise as a body and strike. They should boycott the 
productions of this oppressive tyrant and resolve never while 
life lasts to give it one cent of patronage in any way. Now is 
the time for a bitter war of extermination, for here is the straw 
that has broken the camel's back : 

" A neiv agreement providing for an advance in the price of 
beer has been signed by the members of the breivers'' ' association .^ '' 
— Western Plozighman. 



COW BUYERS PLEASE 

TAKE NOTICE. 

When 3^ou sell a cow sell the 
poorest one you have. — Utica, 
N. v., Press. 



" JANUARY is the first month of the new year." This 
J startling intelligence, which we extract from a country 
weekly, suggests several things. 

Of course at this time we are inclined to take a fresh grip 
on life — sort of spit on our hands — metaphorically, of course, 
and start in with a determination to do better, yes, and to do 
more of it. 

Don't mind the newspaper insinuations to the effect that you 
are sure to backslide. Of course newspaper men ivould, but 
you as readers should not " falter and fall by the wayside." 

You should, however, surround yourselves with every avail- 
able sustaining influence, among the more potent of which, 
permit us to mention Good Roads at the ridiculously marked 
down price of $i.oo per year. 



Day 

of 
Year. 


Day 

of 
Month. 


Day 

of 
Week. 


Lengthof 

Day. 
H. M. 


FIRST A January, 1895 ^ month 


I 


1 


Tu. 


9 


09 


He plays well that wins. 


2 


2 


W. 


9 


09 


A good name is better than a big income. 


3 


3 


Th. 


9 


10 


Praise the sea, but keep on land. 


4 


4 


Fr. 


9 


11 


Pay as you go. 


5 


5 


Sa. 


9 


12 


You shouldn't go if you can't pay. 


6 


6 


S. 


9 


13 


Good Roads $i.oo per year. 


7 


7 


M. 


9 


14 


Never look a gift horse in the mouth. 


8 


8 


Tu. 


9 


16 


Every herring must hang by his own head. 


9 


9 


W. 


9 


17 


\A/hen sorrow is asleep, wake it not. 


lO 


10 


Th. 


9 


18 


Bound volumes $i.oo each. 


II 


11 


Fr. 


9 


20 


You cannot have blood out of a stone. 


12 


12 


Sa. 


9 


22 


Empty vessels make the greatest sound. 


13 


13 


S. 


9 


23 


A false balance is an abomination. 


14 


14 


M. 


9 


25 


Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. 


15 


15 


Tu. 


9 


26 


At the same place. 


16 


16 


W. 


9 


28 


A soft answer is hard to make. 


17 


17 


Th. 


9 


29 


Ripe apples are better than green ones. 


18 


18 


Fr. 


9 


31 


Envy not another's lot. 


19 


19 


Sa. 


9 


33 


No. 12 Pearl street. 


20 


20 


S. 


9 


35 


You can look at teeth and not be bitten. 


21 


21 


M. 


, 9 


37 


One bad example spoils much. 


22 


22 


Tu. 


9 


39 


Unknown, unmissed. 


23 


23 


W. 


9 


41 


Boston, Mass. 


24 


24 


Th. 


9 


43 


While the grass grows the cow starves. 


25 


25 


Fr. 


9 


45 


|n a calm sea every man is a pilot. 


26 


26 


Sa. 


9 


47 


Talking pays no toll. 


27 


27 


S. 


9 


49 


Hot sup, hot swallow. 


28 


28 


M. 


9 


51 


League members, 


29 


29 


Tu. 


9 


53 


Use your thinker. 


30 


30 IW. 


9 


55 


Saying and doing are two things. 


31 


31 


Th. 


9 


58 


Fifty cents. 



LEAGUE OF AMERICAN WHEELMEN. 

Organized 1880. ...'.'. 

A voluntary organization having for its object the systematic 
improvement of the public roads, and the protection of 
wheelmen against unjust legislation. The present officers 
of the IvCague are as follows : 

President.— CnA.S. H. IvUSCOMB, 280 Broadway, New York. 

First Vice-President.— A.. C. WII^IylSON, 47 Baltimore Street, Cumberland, Md. 

Second Vice-President.— Q'EO. A. PERKINS, 15 Court Square, Boston, Mass. 

Secretary.— K'B'BOT: BASSETT, 46 Van Buren Street, Chicago. 

Treasurer.— Mf. M. BREWSTER, 411 Francis Street, St. Joseph, Mo. 



GOOD ROADS MAGAZINE. 

Published on the first of every month by the League of American Wheelmen. 

Devoted to Highway Improvement. 

Sterling Ei.IvIOTT, Managing Editor. 

Vnh\{c3.i\on O&ce, 12 PEARL STREET, - - - BOSTON, MASS. 

Correspondence relating to advertising only 
should be addressed to 167 Oliver Street. 

Entered at Boston Post Office as second-class matter. 



Please send Good Roads for _year_ 

To_ 



Street 






Town 


losed Countv 


g with 


State 





Opepir?^ of ^. Cbejtijut Burr. 



HOW ABOUT FOOTBAXIv? 

If you should hap these days to see the 
coroner, 
O'er his face the smiles a chasing up 
and do'wn, 
Bet your pile with either native or for- 
eigner 
That some jumper from a parachute is 
in town. 

— Buffalo Courier. 



WHERE COULD SHE HAVE 
LOOKED. 

"I've been looking for my 
husband for the last two 
hours," said an agitated 
woman to a calm one. " Don't 
get excited, madam," replied 
the latter. "I've been look- 
ing for a husband for the last 
25 years." — Harper's Bazar. 



SHAKE. 



lyives of poor men oft remind us 

Honest men won't stand no chance ; 
The more we work there grow behind us 

Bigger patches on our pants. 
On our pants, once new and glossy. 

Now are stripes of different hue, 
All because subscribers linger. 

And don't pay up what is dvie. 
Then let all be up and doing. 

Send in your mite ho^vever small. 
Or, when the snow of winter strikes us, 

"We shall have no pants at all. 

— Nashville American. 



Have you subscribed 
Good Roads yet ? 

And if not, what are 
waiting for ? 



for 



you 



THIS SETTLES IT. 

The Seventh Day Advent- 
ists of Battle Creek have 
adopted a resolution condemn- 
ing the bicycle as an unholy 
and unchristian vehicle. — Uji- 
identified. 



UNLESS HE LIVES THERE, IN 
WHICH CASE HE WILL LONG 
TO GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. 

There's mountain air and sea air 
And foreign air, I s'pose, 

But one must be a millionaire 
To fill his lungs with those. 

— Unidentified. 



'TWAS WELL SHE MADE HIM 
PROMISE, ELSE HE MAY 
HAVE FORGOTTEN TO TELL 
HER. 

' ' You really ought to learn 
how to cook before you get 
married." 

"Oh, that's all right. I have 
made Fred promise to tell me 
what things I don't cook right, 
so I'll soon learn." — Truth. 



HOW DOES HE FEEL WHEN HE 
SEES A ' ' PURE AMATEUR ? ' ' 

We never see a citron with- 
out thinking it should be ar- 
rested for trying to look like a 
watermelon. — Atchison Globe. 




'^ A N English gentleman," says the Hub, wants to arrange 
t\ with some American manufacturer to furnish] him with 
vehicles like above cut " at a business-like price." .1X8 

With all possible respect for the " English gentleman," we 
would call his attention to the fact that his one-wheeled, sulky 
originated on this side of the water and has been patented here, 
at least once, though the e. g. has the proud distinction oi 
being the first to make a cut of it. 




FOR the sake of America's reputation for new ideas, Good 
Roads ($i.oo per year ) suggests the above as a novelty 
in the sulky line, and claims for it a number of advantages 
which should be obvious to an expert in such matters. Will 
the American manufacturer who takes the English gentleman's 
contract please communicate also with this office (12 Pearl 
street, Boston). 








ISAAC B. POTTER. 



Good Ro^ob. 

Vol. 7. February, 1895. No. 2. 

SHOUI.D BICYCLES BE SUBJECT TO A SPECIAL 

TAX? 

By Sterling Elliott. 

^^^HE Board of Supervisors of Oneida County, New York, 
• • I have proposed a modification of the plan of taxing 
I bicycles, in that they specify the purpose to which the 
I sum raised is to be applied. The amount of the tax 
is $3 for each bicycle, and the total is to be used for 
local road improvement. Wheelmen, to be sure, are advocates 
of good roads, and have already given liberally of their money 
and their energy to the cause. The use to which the money is 
to be put must therefore meet their approval, but the theory on 
which the tax is levied savors strongly of discrimination and 
injustice. Wheelmen are not the only class who use public 
roads, and should not be called upon to contribute more than 
others to road improvement. All persons, even foot passengers, 
need roads and are under equal obligations for their mainte- 
nance, and if those who are using vehicles are to be compelled 
to pay a special tax, all owners of vehicles of whatever kind 
should be treated alike. So far as damage to the roads is con- 
cerned, what comparison is there between a bicycle and a heavy 
wagon or a narrow-tired carriage ? " — The Maker and Dealer. 

Good Roads is pleased to answer the question which is 
asked by the M. and D. 

A pneumatic tired wheel is an unquestioned advantage to 
every inch of road which it passes over. The soft and yielding 
nature of the tread not only tends to, but actually does compress 
and smooth the surface of even the loosest soil. It has none of 
that grinding effect which the metal tire has. 

It is not a question as to whether the narrow tired wagon or 
the bicycle injures the road most, for it is already well known 
that the wagon does injure it seriously, and it is easily demon- 
strated that while the bicycle has but little effect, that effect is 
always on the good side. 

A large number of bicycles passing over a soft, muddy road 
will invariably make a smooth and comparatively dry path 
through it, while the same numbehr of wagon or carriage wheels 
with metal tires would only cut up the mud and make it worse. 



64 SHOULD BICYCLES BE SPECIALLY TAXEDfl -} 

During some experiments whicli were tried last fall by the 
writer, it was found that a loose gravel road was so improved 
by hauling a pneumatic tired buggj^ over it six times, that on 
the sixth trip the power required to haul it was only about one- 
half the amount necessary on the first trial. 

Does this look like injury to the road ? 

And, again, the bicycle rider with his low machine and air 
tires can travel along a road that is almost impassible for a 
loaded wagon. 

A strip at the side from six inches to a foot in width is all 
the wheelman needs, but the teamster must have at least seven 
feet. 

A bicycle path along the side of any highway may be made 
for a very small part of the cost of improving the main road, a& 
not only less width is required, but a less solid foundation. 
And 3^et the wheelman is and has been agitating for improved 
roads, while they benefit him as a wheelman less than they 
benefit the average citizen. 

It may be a proper subject for discussion, this question as to- 
whether bicycles should be taxed at all or not. Possibly they 
should be taxed on their valuation, just as a wagon or any 
other personal property is taxed, but when it comes to a special 
tax, if there are to be special taxes, place them where they 
properly belong, which is on the narrow tired wagon. 

I believe that every road should be free for the unrestricted 
use of all citizens, but it is entirely proper that the State gov- 
ernment, presumably acting always in the interest of the people 
which it represents, should prevent by law the misuse or abuse 
of any public property. 

If a man were to go into the postoffice, dragging after him 
some piece of freight which was digging into the floor, the 
postmaster who wouldn't have him promptly thrown out could 
hardly expect us to sign his petition for re-appointment. 

The man who is cutting up the highway with narrow tires > 
claims the right to continue it, not because he thinks it proper, 
but because it has been permitted in the past and it suits his 
convenience to. wonder why we should wish to improve on the 
' ' good old way. ' ' 

I am inclined to think that if the first bicycles made had 
been pneumatic safeties the wheelmen would not have gone 
into road improvement agitation so deeply as they have, for it 
is certainly true that the bicycle of to-day needs improved roads 
much less than did the old style. The " movement for better 
going ' ' has now become so universal and so well established 
that in some localities the wheelman's part in it is lost and 
swallowed up in the general interest which the subject has- 
aroused. " 

A glance at the not very ancient history of the "cause," 



SHOULD BICYCLES BE SPECIALLY TAXED f 65 

however, explains its origin and gives the wheehnan first place 
on the pedestal. He pays his taxes like other people, accord- 
ing to his pile, and in his capacity as a wheelman asks no favors 
that are not of public value. To put a special tax on the 
bicycle, which achially impT-oves the road, is base ingratitude, 
and 

" If tbere be a crime of deeper dye than aU the guilty train of human vices, it is 
ingratitude." 

While to tax the narrow tired wagon, which literally 
murders the road, at no higher rate than we tax the compara- 
tively inoffensive piano, which only annoys the newspaper 
paragrapher, is, to say the least, not in accordance with that 
law which is based on 

" Equal and exact justice to all men." 




THIS picture might have been taken in almost any other 
State except Pennsylvania, but it wasn't. 
It shows one of the many ways in which a bridge should 
not be repaired. 

It was sent us by Mr. Marriott C. Morris, of Germantown, 
Pa. 



WII.I. GOOD ROADS BANKRUPT THE FARMER? 

JOHN M. STAHIv. 

. ^\ SK, and ye shall receive ; knock, and it shall be opened 

• • t\ unto you," is as applicable to the hand and mind as 

Jj\ to the soul. It is a law of industries as well as of 

J morals. As truly as there is natural law in the 

spiritual world is there spiritual law in the business 
world. As classes have been so forcibly seized with a desire 
for better things that they have firmly, persistently demanded 
more favorable conditions, their demands have been yielded to 
them ; and as soon as any class has been content to take less 
than it has been enjoying, the rest of mankind has been eager 
to push it down to the level of its desires. 

The wage earnings of any class of laborers is neither more 
nor less than that which the class strenuously insists upon. 
The measure of wages is the standard of homes and comforts 
and education and social opportunities peculiar to that class. 

The plane of living insisted upon determines the wage ; the 
wage does not determine the plane of living. 

As a class has been educated, as its horizon has expanded, 
as its hopes and aspirations have been broadened and elevated, 
as its luxuries of the immediate past appear to be only comforts 
in the light of the immediate future, its wages have been 
increased to keep pace with its insistent demands. On the 
other hand, as a class has been degraded, its wages have fallen. 
An upward or downward movement of stable, insistent desires 
carries a corresponding movement of wages. When a class 
has been content that the wives and children shall work in the 
field or shop or mine, the wages of the men have lessened until 
the whole family earned no more than the man earned before ; 
and as, lacking a proper home life, lacking opportunities for 
education, lacking social culture, the family has sunk lower 
and lower, its wages have become less than was the wage of its 
head when he alone labored outside the house. When a class 
has been touched, as by the very finger of God, with the divine 
impulse for better things, and insists that the wives shall be 
housekeepers, that the children shall be schooled, that the 
homes shall be pleasant, that there shall be social enjoyment, 
the scale of wages has risen to the cost of these things. 

Again, no lengthening of the hours of labor has ever 
resulted in a permanent increase of the day's wage, but in the 
end, by narrowing the life and lowering the intelligence and 
aspirations, it has had a contrary result; and' no shortening of 
the working day yet effected has permanently decreased the 
day's wage. As the history of industrial movements among 



WILL GOOD ROADS BANKRUPT FARMERS f 67 

peoples and in the centuries is more and more revealed, it be- 
comes more and more certain that when a class has insisted 
that the life shall be more than meat and the body than raiment, 
it has been permitted to enjoy those things that are above the 
necessities of existence. As it has asked for better things they 
have been given unto it ; as it has knocked at the door of a 
fuller life, to it has that door been opened. 

Farmers are not without justification for their restlessness 
and dissatisfaction ; but it must be confessed that they are 
nearly altogether to blame for their condition. They have not 
asked insistently and firmly for enough of the good things that 
minister to the body, mind and soul ; and when they are offered 
suitable means of communication, for example, they actually 
refuse the proffered good. When they have asked for more 
than they were getting, they have often asked for foolish things 
in a foolish way. Farmers have been willing to work long 
hours ; and the world has been very willing that they should 
work long hours. Farmers have been willing to live without 
many things that other people have insisted upon having ; and 
the other people have carefully refrained from forcing these 
things upon farmers, keeping all these things for their own 
enjoyment. 

Farmers have been content to have for alleged highways 
strips of mud, sometimes frozen, sometimes dried, sometimes 
liquid, and never good highway ; and the rest of the world 
would never disturb this serenity of the farmers if the farmers 
alone were abused and injured by these strips of mud. 

It is true that farmers, pressed by conditions until irritation 
has grown to anger, have asked blindlj^ and violently for things 
foolish or wicked. Fortunately, such things as fiat mone^^ two 
per cent, loans from the government, or " sub-treasuries," have 
not been granted unto them. This spasmodic agitation, result- 
ing from irritation and anger, and which may easily spring 
from ignorance, is entirely distinct from the steady, calm move- 
ment that comes only from greater intelligence, higher aspira- 
tions, a wider horizon. 

It is also true that farmers have to a certain extent right- 
fully asked for a higher plane of living, and it has been given 
to them to the extent to which they asked. In the township in 
which I lived twenty-five years ago — a very rich, purely agri- 
cultural region — there were only two carriages, and when one 
of those carriages passed along the road, I and the other 
youngsters climbed on the fence to gaze at it. Then we went 
to church in two-horse farm wagons, but now. if a resident of 
that neighborhood took his family to church in a two-horse 
farm wagon, the youngsters would certainly stop to look at him. 
Practically every farmer in the township has a carriage. Some 
farmers have two or more. I do not think that there was an 



68 WILL GOOD ROADS BANKRUPT FARMERS? 

organ in that township twenty-five years ago. Now half the- 
farmhouses contain very good organs indeed — and the organ is 
hardly good enough now ; the talk is of pianos. It is within 
twenty-five years that the chromo reached that neighborhood ; 
and it was better than the bare walls ! But it has gone and in 
its place are steel engravings and enjoyable pictures ( some of 
them painted by farmers' daughters), and some real etchings. 
And with these things have come ' ' store carpet ' ' and lace cur- 
tains and beautiful lawns and magazines and patent leather 
shoes — all practically unknown there a quarter of a century 
ago. 

If in 1870 it had been proposed that the farmers should buy 
those carriages, organs, pictures, carpets, etc., it would have 
appeared miich more extravagant and impossible than good 
roads appear to be now ; and it would have been ! 

The man that would have then said that the farmers could 
have the carriages, furniture, clothes, etc., they have been 
having would have been in the eyes of the farmer a greater 
idiot than is the good roads enthusiast to-da3^ The man that 
in 1870 had proposed that the farmers should buy the sulky 
plows, two-horse corn planters and cultivators, disc harrows, 
forcefeed grain drills, and self-binders that they have bought 
would have been given the middle of the road, if not all of it. 
There are plent}^ of men that would have figured out that all 
these things would cost more than the farms would sell for, just 
as such computations are now made on good roads ; yet to my 
own knowledge above nine-tenths of the farmers have paid for 
these things, and more — a majority of them have paid for 
good farms. 

It will probably be said that the price of these things has 
much declined. So it has — because of the increased demand ; 
more of them were required. And just as more good highways 
are required will their cost decrease — labor-saving, cost-saving 
devices and methods will be invented and discovered. In some 
parts of Illinois in which the road tax is collected in money 
and the work is let to bidders, a class of road makers has been 
developed, provided with machines and acquainted with 
methods that have reduced by almost one-half the cost of mak- 
ing earth roads. This is an important point apparently over- 
looked — as we make more good roads the}^ will cost less. 

It should not escape consideration that while buggies, car- 
pets, organs and pictures are not money-makers, not even the 
bitterest opponent of good roads has been able to make it 
appear that good highways will not pay a fair income on the 
investment. The capital put into them will not be dead 
capital ; it will be productive. Good roads will at the least help 
to pay for themselves. In fact they will pay back all their cost 
and more. 



WILL GOOD ROADS BANKRUPT FARMERS? 69 

Better houses, carriages, musical instruments, and all such 
things that we have been considering, farmers have had to pay 
for themselves, and it has not bankrupted them. For better 
roads it is proposed to tax all other classes as well as farmers, 
and yet the cry is that proper means of marketing crops, trans- 
porting supplies, and of social enjoyment will bankrupt the 
farmers. The cry is false. 

The very costly road improvement that some opponents of 
the good roads movement are pleased to say is proposed by the 
advocates of good highways ( and which a few extremists may 
possibly contemplate ) is not seriousl}^ advocated. The people 
that are for good roads are fully as sensible and practical as the 
average of mankind. While real, permanent road improvement 
is insisted upon, it is not proposed that good sense and true 
economy shall not guide road improvement. 

People now living heard it asserted, when it was proposed 
to pave the streets in some of our largest cities of that time, 
that the people could not bear the expense, that it would 
bankrupt the tax payers, and that paved streets were an extrav- 
agant luxury that could not be justified ; but the paving of 
these streets did not lead to any of the dire results predicted. 
Within the past ten years the writer has heard it iterated and 
reiterated in half a dozen flourishing cities of 20,000 to 50,000 
population, in which it was proposed to pave with brick or 
stone the principal streets, that the tax payers could not and 
would not submit to the increased burden ; that the proposal tO' 
pave the streets was the idle, chimerical proposition of dreamers 
and propertyless people ; that the paving would not add a dollar 
to the value of even abutting property ; and that every dollar 
spent for paving was so much taken from the pockets of the 
people without any return other than the gratification of a few 
men having bicycles or fast horses. If the paving was to be 
done by special assessment on the abutting property, the cry of 
mingled anger and distress was yet louder and more bitter. It 
has been declared that the people could not pay the special 
assessments ; that the paving was a virtual confiscation of the 
assessed property ; that the property owners would not be bene- 
fitted ; and that the courts would be successfully invoked to 
prevent the robber5\ Yet the paving was done, was paid for ; 
the ground assessed was not confiscated, the abutting propert}'' 
was made more valuable, and the people would not now listen 
to the stories they so firmly believed only a few years ago. 
What was then thought to be an extravagant luxury has now 
been proved to be an economical necessity ; what was then 
supposed to be a gross loss to the property owners has proved 
to be a net gain to them. The capital that, it was asserted, 
was made dead capital by its burial in the streets, and the with- 
drawal of which from active use would paralyze the industries 



70 WILL GOOD ROADS BANKRUPT FARMERS? 

and retard the growth of the city, has proved to be the most 
fruitful ever invested in the city. It has brought improvements 
and business and prosperity and outside capital and energy. 
While some cities have carried street paving too far ( it v^^ould 
be miraculous if some mistakes had not been made ) in the 
main, street paving has been so profitable and is so plainly 
advantageous and even necessary, that the proposition to go 
back to the old mud streets would be hailed with derision by 
above nine-tenths of the people, among which would be those 
once loudest in the denunciation of street paving. 

We hear now urged against road improvement the same 
objections once raised against street paving — it is extravagant, 
it is not*necessary, property is not correspondingly enhanced in 
price, the property owners can not pay the necessary taxes ; it 
is disguised confiscation, and it is all because of a few cranks, 
bicyclers, and fast horsemen. Will not the parallel between 
street paving and road improvement extend yet farther ? 

The assault on street paving was led by, and the assaulting 
forces were nearly altogether composed of substantial, property- 
owning people whose judgment is trusted and whose opinions 
deservedly have weight. The fact that the same class in the 
country is most opposed to road improvement is adduced as 
conclusive evidence »that rogds should not be permanently 
improved. It is true that the opinions of this class should be 
carefully considered, and their conservatism often makes them 
safe counsellors and the stay of the State in times of wild, pre- 
cipitate public movements; but, on the other hand, their conserv- 
atism, their property interests, their very characteristics evi- 
denced by the acquisition and retention of property, make them 
naturally opposed at first blush to public improvements, and of 
course their opposition is proportioned to the radicalness and 
the expense of the proposed innovation. Property owners 
must bear practically all the expense of good roads, which will 
benefit those that pay little or nothing. It is inevitable that 
some property owners should see the outgo more clearly and 
before the compensating advantages. Hence, while the opinion 
of these worthy people should be treated with all fairness and 
due consideration, their natural attitude toward public improve- 
ments should also be considered ; then it will be seen that the 
fact that the}^ are property owners should lessen as well as 
increase the weight of their objection ; and then it will be 
explained why some of this class were so far wrong in their 
judgment of street paving. May they not be equally wrong in 
their judgment of road improvement ? 

I hold that the preponderance of evidence is that it is 
proper, kind, and patriotic to work for good roads. The first 
work to be done is to develop a real, persistent desire for good 
roads among farmers — the class that though it would be most 



WILL GOOD ROADS BANKRUPT FARMERSf 71 

benefited by good roadb, is most opposed to them. When this 
desire is developed we will get good roads and farmers will not 
find it very burdensome to pay their share of the cost. The 
man that complains of hard times usually unconsciously justi- 
fies himself by the condition of the seat of his trousers ; and 
shiftlessness has the same result when it is an attribute of a 
class as of an individual. The world does not insist upon 
giving a kingly crown to the man whose strong liking it is to 
play with mean things while grovelling in the dirt ; and this is 
equally true of any class. True charity gives bread to only 
those that can not work ; for those that can labor the only true 
charity is opportunity to labor. Not even angels can help the 
man that will not help himself. Classes are aggregated indi- 
viduals. 

They can be uplifted only as they are induced to uplift 
themselves. 

To better the condition of a class they must be brought to 
desire more strenuously, and their desire will be given unto 
them. When farmers are educated to better things, when they 
are troubled with that fine, intelligent discontent that is the 
basis of all advancement, they will have good roads, mail will 
be delivered to them, their educational and social advantages 
will be the equal of those of the- city, their homes, equipages 
and dress will not justify reproach or ridicule, and their hours 
of labor will be shortened ; and after all these things are paid 
for, the farmers will yet find more money in the purse than now. 
They will again have proved this true, "Ask, and ye shall 
receive ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Yea, more ; 
they will have proved that industrially as well as spiritually it 
is true that "whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and 
whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which 
he seemeth to have." 

The choice is theirs to be him that hath or him that hath 
not. 

Chicago, 111. 



A SUGGESTION FOR PUBLIC SPEAKERS. 

" I never in my life," said Dean Stanley to his 
wife, after a sermon in Westminster Abbey, "so 
touched the congregation. They were entranced ; 
every ej'^e was upon me from the first word to the 
last. " " No wonder, ' ' said Lady Augustus, ' 'your 
gloves were inside of your hat, and when you took 
it off they remained on the top of your head all 
through the sermon." 



ANNUAIv REPORT 

OF THK 

MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWAY COMMISSION. 

^\ S the Highway Commission of this Commonwealth is a 

IJ relatively new board, it seems proper to preface the 

f\ account of its doings during the past year b}^ a state- 

J ment as to the legislation which has controlled its 

work. 

SUMMARY OF IvF;GISIyATlVF ENACTMENTS. 

By an Act approved June 2, 1892, a Commission of Inquiry 
was established which was directed to report to the next L/Cgis- 
lature concerning the condition of the roads in the Common- 
wealth, and to draft a bill providing for the improvement of the 
highways of the Commonwealth. The report was made in 
February, 1893. 

The project for a law, as framed by the Commissioners, was 
with some changes passed, and became a law on June 10, 1893. 
This bill provided that each road proposed as a State highway 
should be petitioned for by the County Commissioners of the 
county in which it lay, or by two or more cities or towns, and 
that, if approved by the Highway Commission, a separate bill 
for the construction should be by that Board submitted to the 
lyCgislature. 

Under this law a number of petitions for the construction of 
State roads were received, and the work of preparing the 
projects for legislative action was begun. 

Before any bills for the construction of State roads were 
submitted to the General Court, an Act was introduced which 
became a law June 20, 1894, which changed the powers of the 
Commission and the mode of action of the local authorities in 
several important respects. The Selectmen of any town, or 
the Mayor and Aldermen of a city, as well as the County Com- 
missioners, were authorized to petition the Highway Commis- 
sion for the taking over of a road as a State highway. In place 
of separate bills for the construction of each road to be sub- 
mitted to the Legislature, the sum of three hundred thousand 
( 300,000 ) dollars was voted to be used by the Highway Com- 
mission in constructing State highways without further legisla- 
tive action. 

ACTION OF THE COMMISSION UNDER THE EXISTING LAW. 

Owing to the considerable changes in the law it seemed to 
the Highway Commission necessary to call once again for peti- 
tions, and to again adjudge their relative claims for State aid. 
One hundred and eight (108) such petitions have been received. 



MA SSA CHUSE TTS HIGH WA Y COMMISSION. 73 




Ordinary Country Road at Westfield, Mass. Drain Tile I,aid in Trench, 
Which is Afterward Filled with Broken Stone. 



As roads of good quality cannot be built in times of frost, it 
was deemed necessary to notify the authorities of the muni- 
cipalities that it would be inexpedient to begin work this year 
on roads which might be petitioned for after August i, 1894. 
From the petitions received before that date a selection was 
made of thirty pieces of road in different parts of the Common- 
-wealth before the setting in of winter. 

From the appropriation of three hundred thousand (300,000) 
dollars, nine thousand (9000) dollars was set aside for office 
expenses, salaries, surveys, and general executive work, and 
the balance of two hundred and ninety-one thousand (291,000) 
dollars was distributed by counties as follows : 

Barnstable S 15.000 

Bristol 20,000 

Berkshire 24,000 

Dukes 10,000 

Essex ' 25,000 

Franklin 24,000 

Hampden 24,000 

Hampshire 24,000 

Middlesex 25,000 

Nantucket 10,000 

Norfolk 20,000 

Plvraouth • 20,000 

Suffolk 20,000 

Worcester 30,000 

S2gi,ooo 



74 MA SSA CHUSE TTS HIGH WA Y COMMISSION. 

Owing, however, to the delays incident to the adjustment of 
the locations of proposed roads, and the re-location of street 
railways to conform to the new conditions, it has not been 
feasible to undertake construction in all the counties. Under 
the circumstances, considering the very short time at their 
disposal in which to arrange the numerous and troublesome 
preliminaries of each piece of work, the Commissioners feel 
that they have been fortunate in beginning the task of con- 
structing State highways at so many and so well distributed 
points. 

In deciding which of the many petitions, or the portions 
thereof, should be accepted for construction during the first 
year of work, this Commission has in each case visited the 
locality and gathered information as to the value of the road to 
the people and the cost of the proposed improvements. In all 
cases the plan has been to accept the way which might, on 
account of its importance and its ill condition, afford the 
greatest relief to interested communities if taken over as a 
State road and properly improved and maintained. One of the 
results of this policy has been to make the average expense per 
mile of way constructed somewhat greater than it will be here- 
after, provided the system of building State roads shall be 
carried on for some years to come. 

Owing to the small amount of the appropriation as compared 
with the number of calls for aid, it has been deemed best at the 
outset to limit the amount of road to be built in any city or 
town to a maximum of about two miles, or to the length which 
would afford substantial relief to the community, and serve 
also as an object lesson, showing the proper methods of high- 
wa}^ construction. Nearly all of the petitions which have been 
presented have been for lines of road which connect consider- 
able centres of population. The portions elected for construc- 
tion have been taken with a view of bettering highways for the 
use of the people of the neighborhood. When thus granting a 
portion of a petition, the remainder has been placed on file for 
further consideration in case there should be further grants 
made by the lyCgislature for the continuance of the work. 
While the immediate, though temporary, results of this method 
are to bring about a fragmentary distribution of the State 
highways, no other plan could be devised which would meet 
the requirements of the law or the rightful demands of the 
people. 

When possible, the opinions of the County Commissioners 
as to the relative value of the proposed roads have been 
obtained. More than one-half of the ways which have been 
undertaken have received the approval of the several County 
Boards. The action of the Highway Commission in the county 
of Dukes County, Essex, Middlesex, Nantucket, Berkshire 



MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWAY COMMISSION. 75 




IvAYING TkLFORD FOUNDATION. 

Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire and Bristol Counties have in 
most part rested on petitions from their County Boards, and in 
several other counties where the towns have petitioned, these 
officers have given valuable advice as to the most important of 
several competing projects. 

Under the provisions of the law contracts for the construc- 
tion of the roads can be made either with the municipality in 
which the way lies, or, in case the local authorities do not elect 
to so contract, with other persons or with private corporations. 
Contracts for carrying on the work can be made with the city 
or town directly without the approval of the Governor and 
Council. Contracts with other parties have to be made after 
public notice and with -the consent of these higher authorities, 
a process which demands much time. Therefore, because of 
the approaching winter, the Commission felt it necessary to 
avoid taking in hand any construction for which the municipal 
authorities were not willing to contract. In practice this 
proved to be no hardship, for with one exception all the cities 
and towns in which it seemed well to begin the. work were 
willing to undertake the task. So far as has yet appeared the 
local authorities are content with the method of doing the work. 
The Commissioners believe that it is best because it guards the 
community against evils which are apt to arise from the impor- 



76 MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWAY COMMISSION. 

tation of foreign laborers. Moreover it teaches the towns- 
people the art of road building, and protects the State against 
the interest which private corporations might have in cheapen- 
ing the work. 

FORM OF CONTRACT FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS. 

As will be seen by reference to the form of contract which 
is made with the local authorities, the work is to be paid for, 
not in bulk, but by units of construction, the price paid being 
based upon the various kinds of grading and excavating, the 
telford foundations, the culverts and drains, as well as the 
superstructure, etc. In practice the specification of items is 
carried considerably farther than is indicated in the printed 
form. Thus, in the matter of superstructure the reckoning is 
separately made for the cost of the broken stone, for hauling, 
spreading, watering and rolling the same, and for supervision. 
Where the stone is not bought in the broken state a further 
account is taken of the price of the stone and the expense of 
hauling and breaking it. By doing the work in this manner a 
closer approximation is obtained to the actual cost, a basis on 
which all the contracts have been made. 

A provision has been inserted in the contract to the effect 
that they should not be sub-let. This is construed to mean 
that while the whole undertaking cannot be turned over to a 
contractor, the separate items, as, for instance, the work of 
hauling stone, grading, etc., etc., might be let to private 
parties. In most cases the towns have taken this course, and 
their authorities, as well as the Commission, are satisfied with 
the result. 

When the construction of the road is to begin the Commis- 
sion appoints a resident engineer, who is constantly on the 
ground while the work is in progress. This ofiicer keeps a 
tally of all the items which the State is to pay for, entering the 
same on the form as shown in the appendix ( see Appendix B) . 
When possible each load of stone is w^eighed. When, as in 
some cases, this cannot be done conveniently, standard loads 
are tested for weight and the filling of the carts kept to the 
guage. Provision is made for payment for work done each 
month. 

So far all the contracts, with one exception, have been for 
broken stone roads. In some cases it has been required that 
the broken stone shall be of trap-rock, but in many cases the 
relativel}^ great cost of this material, and the low cost of main- 
tenance due to light traffic, has led to the use of ordinary field 
stone or the boulders from river beds prepared in crushers 
temporarily set up along the line of working. It is not unlikely 
that some of these experiments with the local varieties of rock 



MA SSA CHUSE TTS HIGH IVA Y COMMISSION. 7 7 




I^AYiNG Macadam on an Earth Foundation. 

may prove to have been ill advised, but as tlie expense of con- 
structing may often be reduced to the amount of one-half bv 
the use of field or river boulders, instead of the trap-rock, it 
has seemed worth while to take the risk. Where the local 
materials thus used do not turn out to be economically service- 
able, the mistake may be remedied by surfacing the way with a 
thin coating of the costlier material, or by searching out some 
deposit of dyke stone which may exist in the imniediate 
neighborhood. As will be noted below, none such undiscovered 
" trap " deposits evidently exist in this State. 

In the case of the Hingham road a contract has been made 
for the surfacing of the way with a variety of gravel which has 
already been tested for such use. The cost of a road made of 
this material is considerably less than that of a broken stone 
pavement made under the same local conditions. The expense 
of repairs has yet to be determined. They may possibly be 
somewhat greater than in the case of a broken stone super- 
structure, but it is believed that the system may be economical 
in other localities whenever gravel of good cementing qualities 
can be conveniently obtained. 

In determining the width of location of the accepted ways, 
the Commission has in each case considered the probable exten- 
sion of the traffic, and the likelihood that a location for street 



78 MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWA Y COMMISSION. 

railway should be established on the road. Care as to the last 
mentioned point is the more important for the reason that the 
power to grant such franchise on the State roads appears under 
the law to be retained by the local authorities. In most cases 
it has seemed advisable to clear away the recent encroachments 
on the original location, so that the right of way will be from 
forty to sixty feet in width. Although the law authorizes the 
Commission to condemn the required land at a valuation, it has 
seemed best, on account of the expense, to avoid such action, 
the local authorities being asked to obtain releases of the 
required land before the Board voted to accept the way. In 
almost all instances the betterment to the land owner to be 
derived from the construction of the road has been far greater 
than the injury inflicted by the widening of the road. It has, 
therefore, been an easy matter for the town officers to procure, 
in most instances without payment, the necessary releases. In 
only one case has it seemed fit that the Commission should pay 
for land damages, i. e., that of the Goshen road. Here, in 
order to bring the grade down from eleven feet to about four 
feet in one hundred, it was necessary to adopt a new route for a 
considerable part of the way, with a resulting distinct damage 
to the owners of the land. 

When it comes to accepting roads as State highways, the 
Commission had, in cases where there were sidewalks, or likely 
to be such, to determine whether to include these footways in 
■their taking. To acquire the sidewalks, meant to render the 
State responsible for their safe keeping, and for accidents which 
may arise from any defects in their condition. This point was 
evidently unforeseen, by the framers of the law, who clearly 
had in mind the wheel ways alone. On this account, and 
pending such legislative action as may be adopted, the plan has 
generally been followed of omitting the sidewalks, or strips 
wide enough for their construction on either side of the part of 
the road which has been acquired for the State. A better 
method of accomplishing the same end would be to so modify 
the law that while the State lays out the entire width of loca- 
tion, including sidewalks, the construction, care, maintenance 
and liability shall remain, as provided for in the Public Statutes 
for the foot ways, which, unlike the central portion of the road, 
are of purely local use and value. 

WIDTH OF WIDENED WAY, 

As regards the width adopted for the hardened way : The 
Commissioners have considered that the main aim of the laws 
under which they were acting was to secure the greatest pos- 
sible length of good roads at the least possible expense. They 
have therefore limited the width of the hardened portion to the 
actual needs of the existing traffic. In only eight instances 



A'ja ssa chuse tts high wa y commission. 79 





Rolling the First Course. 



has the hardened section been eighteen feet or more in width, 
and in these cases by reason of the amount of travel. The 
remaining thirty pieces contracted for have a width of fifteen 
feet. So important has it seemed to the Commissioners to gain 
length of way, that in certain thinly settled portions of the 
Commonwealth they are considering the advisability of build- 
ing "single track" roads having a width of nine feet, with 
frequent places of double width way which may serve as 
passing points for carriages. Carefully prepared ways of this 
narrow kind are found in some of the countries of Europe, 
where the most attention has been paid to road construction. 
It may also be noted that in south-eastern Massachusetts such 
narrow ways, with turn-outs arranged so that drivers may 
always have access to one after sighting each other, have been 
in use since the settlement of the country. The only serious 
objections brought against these ways is that driving in^ the 
night-time is apt to be a little inconvenient unless the vehicles 
are provided with lanterns, for the reason that they are likely 
to come together at some point where passing would be difiicult. 
Evidence which has been taken concerning the single track 
ways of the Cape district makes it clear that so long as_ the 
traffic does not exceed an average of from six to eight vehicles 



8o MA SSA CHUSE TTS HIGH WA Y COMMISSION. 

an hour during the day time, and when the night travel is 
small, the objections to the narrow type of way very rarely are 
strong enough to lead the people to open the road to the 
average width of the public ways. Including the expense of 
preparing the road bed for the material, it is probable that in 
some instances one and one-half miles of way nine feet wide 
can be built at no more cost than one mile of fifteen-foot track, 
but in most cases the difference of cost would be much less, 
and the cost of maintaining would be proportionally greater, 
while the cheapening of taking goods to market would be 
about as great with the narrow road as with the wider. More- 
over, if, after a term of years, it should be found that the way 
in question subjected the people to unnecessary inconvenience, 
it could be widened without incurring much greater aggregate 
cost than would have been the case if it had been originally 
constructed of the usual width. It ma}^ be expected that a 
good deal of opposition will be made to these single track 
roads, and it is an open question whether or not the cost during 
a term of years will not be as great on the narrow as on the 
average width of road. 

LIMITATION OF GRADES. 

The question as to the maximum grades to be allowed on 
the State roads has much engaged the attention of the Com- 
mission. In France, and elsewhere in Europe, no cost is 
spared to reduce the grades to, or below, five per cent. An 
examination of the topography of the State has shown that to 
fix such a limit would involve the expenditure of an exceed- 
ingly^ large amount of money, and it has therefore seemed best 
not to adopt any fixed rule concerning grades, but to make the 
determination with the reference to the traffic and the cost of 
maintenance of each road. In the Berkshire Hills, where 
many of the ways which are likely to be acquired by the Com- 
monwealth have occasional grades of from seven to ten per 
cent., it may be advisable to adopt a heavier grade until the 
needs of the district are provided for, rather than to delay the 
progress of the work by seeking a more ideal system. To 
reduce the declivities of these roads to say five feet in one 
hundred would in many cases require complete re-location of 
the ways. In some cases the projects can be so contrived that 
the steep grade can be reduced by short detours without effect- 
ing the general plan of the ways. In a word, it seems wise for 
the present to limit the work of improvement mainly to the 
existing lines of road, accepting in the process the routes as 
they exist, except where it is expedient to insist on the widen- 
ing of the location. 



MA SSA CHUSE TTS HIGH WA Y COMMISSION. 8 1 




Rolling the Second Course. 



SHADE TREES. 

The Commission is directed, when feasible, to plant trees 
along the State highway. It is impossible with the present 
data to estimate the cost of planting and maintaining shade 
trees along State highways. From crude estimates based on 
present information, the ultimate cost of such work may be one 
million dollars. It seems doubtful to the Commission, with 
this limited knowledge, whether it would be advisable to 
attempt the planting of shade trees during the coming year. 
The Commission has taken much advice from experts concern- 
ing the best varieties of trees for planting, and has had observa- 
tions made in the climatic and soil divisions of the State as to 
the species \\Tiich have proved most successful by the wayside. 

It has been suggested that elms, both American and English 
are so subject to the attack of insects that their protection from 
these pests would prove too costly, and also for the reason that 
their roots, extending as they do for a great distance, are inju- 
rious to the land beside the ways. On the other hand these 
trees are fairly quick growing and hardy, the shade is high 
above the ground, where it works less injury to the road, the 
side roots can be trimmed off with little injury to the tree, 
and the leaves falling on the ground cause but little obstruction 
in the gutters. These trees are to be found in all parts of the 



82 MA SSA CHUSE TTS HIGH WA Y COMMISSION. 

Commonwealth in beautiful proportions and great age. The 
oaks should possibly be excluded on account of their slow 
growth and low shade, though they may be used in some cases 
between trees which develop more rapidly, with the intention 
of in time removing the last mentioned kinds. 

The maple is quick growing and beautiful, with broad 
spreading limbs near the ground, shading the road to its injury. 
A slight cutting of the roots, rendered necessary if placed 
along the highway, tends to injure, if not kill the tree. 

It is an open question whether it would not be well to make 
a large part of the plantings of our American nut trees, the 
white and black walnuts and the species of hickories and 
chestnuts. It is the custom in Continental Europe to plant the 
roadways with trees which yield profitable crops. In France 
and Germany the ways are often shielded with cherry trees, 
and in other countries mulberries are planted to afford leaves 
for the silk worms. Chestnuts, English walnuts, etc., serve 
both for shade and crop. In those countries the yield of way- 
side trees belong to the neighboring land owner, or in some 
cases to the community, and their product is as well guarded 
by law and custom as any other part of his property. To the 
proposed use of nut trees by the wayside, it is objected that the 
species of this group have less dignity of form than many 
others, and that they would most likely be damaged by persons 
seeking nuts before they had fallen, and particularly that such 
trees would litter the way in an offensive manner, and obstruct 
the gutters and culverts, causing dangerous and expensive 
washouts. As regards this question of tree planting the Com- 
missioners would be glad to receive advice and information 
from the citizens of the State. Although planting should be 
begun in the spring of 185, it will at first be carried on slowly 
and in an experimental way. 

The experience of this year has shown that in many cases 
it is possible to cheapen, in an important way, the cost of a 
road by making a careful study of the local deposits of stone 
which may be used in its construction. 

The experimental work has been carried on in the laboratory 
of the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, which 
is devoted to problems of highway engineering. The apparatus 
used has been provided by the School, the only expense being 
for the services of employees of the Commission who are 
engaged in carrying on the tests. The aim of these inquiries 
has been to determine the nature of the qualities which con- 
stitute fitness or unfitness of the different kind of rocks for use 
in road making, the effects of diverse methods of treatment 
used in the process of construction, and the relative value of 
the bed-rocks and gravels which are found in the several parts 
of the State. In a number of instances these determinations 



MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWAY COMMISSION. 83 




Rolling Last Course. 



have already proved very serviceable in guiding tlie choice of 
the kind of stone to be used in the work. When these labora- 
tory tests have been checked by practical trials of the materials 
on roadways, their indicative value will be so well determined 
that the grade of a particular variety of stone for highway 
purposes can be quickly and economically determined. It is 
believed that this work will not only be of advantage to the 
Commission, but that it will also serv^e to better the methods of 
road making which are now in use in this country. 

CO-OPERATION OF MUNICIPALITIES. 

It should be noted that generally throughout the State the 
cities and towns have heartily co-operated with the Commission 
in the work, rendering all assistance possible in procuring 
suitable location for the road and road machinery, and informa- 
tion as to material, flow of water, and condition of the road at 
different seasons. 

Some of the towns have appropriated money to build their 
main village streets in the same careful manner as the State 
highways are being built. Others have purchased road 
machinery to be used in the construction of State roads, with 
the intent-ion of extending the same class of work in the towns. 



84 • MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWA Y COMMISSION. 

The town of Yarmouth has appropriated fifty thousand 
(50,000) dollars to be used to pay one-half the costs of such 
State roads as may be built in the town. The aim of this 
action is to bring about the construction of such of the ways of 
the municipality as may be deemed fit to be taken as State 
highways at the earliest possible time. Your Commissioners 
feel it to be desirable to avail themselves of this voluntary offer, 
to the extent of building two miles of road in one locality, 
instead of one, as would necessarily be the case without said 
aid. It seems not unlikely that similar offers will be made by 
other cities and towns. Your Commissioners therefore suggest 
that the legislation which guides their actions be amended to 
meet those cases where the municipalities wish to contribute to 
the cost of the work. 

On account of the many separate roads for which it was 
necessary to contract, the Commission has found some difficulty 
in obtaining a sufiicient number of skilled men to undertake 
the supervision of the works. Men who have served as Resi- 
dent Engineers have devoted themselves to their tasks and it is 
believed that by their aid important mistakes have been 
avoided. 

The cost of the stone used in macadamizing has in many 
cases been somewhat greater than it will be in further work on 
the same lines, as competition will reduce the price. Crushers, 
the value of which at the time the first contracts were made 
appeared to be so doubtful that the Commissioners did not ven- 
ture to reckon on their use, have since proved to be serviceable. 
By the general use of these machines on the ways where good 
road building material can be obtained promises to spare the 
cost of transporting the broken stone to the nearest railway 
station and thence to the line of the road ; charges which in 
some instances may be ver)^ heavy. 

It may be said that the impetus given to the development of 
road making machinery by the numerous constructions which 
have been undertaken in Massachusetts promises to effect 
important improvements in such apparatus. 

At the beginning of the work it was felt that many of the 
towns could not afford to purchase crushing machinery, as they 
could not be paid for out of the small amount of State work, 
and the small annual appropriations would not allow their use 
on local ways. This difficulty was overcome by agents of the 
different crushers furnishing plants complete with engine, 
elevator, screens and bins, and contracting to break the stone 
at a certain price per ton. This arrangement has generally 
worked well, although it will be necessary in future to insist 
that any crusher furnished shall supply a sufficient quantity of 
stone to give continuous work to the steam roller. In some 
few cases during the present year the cost of construction has 



MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWAY COAIAHSS/ON.^85 




Stone Crushing Plant at West Springfield, Mass. 



been considerably increased by too small a daily suppl3^ of 
broken stone. 

What has been said about the ability of towns to purchase 
crushing machines is true of steam rollers. There has, however 
been no difficult}'^ in securing rollers to be used on all State 
work during the present year. In some instances where State 
roads have been constructed the towns own a roller, in other 
cases the rollers have been hired from towns and shipped to the 
work, and in still other cases thej^ have been hired of private 
parties. The prices paid for rollers obtained in this way has 



86 MA SSA CHUSE TTS HIGH WA Y COMMISSION. 

been fifteen (15) dollars per day, and the cost of transportation. 
The actual cost of running a steam roller is about five (5) 
dollars a day, not including interest and depreciation, or about 
seven (7) dollars including these items, assuming that a roller 
will be used during seven months of the year. Your Commis- 
sioners feel that the cost of constructing State roads will be 
largely increased, if the policy of hiring rollers is continued, 
above what would be the case if the rollers were owned by the 
Commonwealth. It is reasonable to estimate that if the Com- 
monwealth owned the rollers a saving of at least three hundred 
(300) dollars a mile could be made, even after deducting five 
(5) per cent, of the cost of the roller for depreciation. Further- 
more, there is likely to be difficulty in securing a sufiicient 
number of rollers to carry on any increased amount of work. 
Taking into account these facts, your Commissioners feel that 
they are warranted in recommending that authority be given to 
purchase and operate a certain number of rollers if they feel 
that the best interests of the Commonwealth demand such 
action. 

CONTINUATION OF WORK. 

In order to finish many of the contemplated roads before 
the frosts of winter, it will be necessary to begin work as soon 
as the season opens. The Commissioners deem it to be their 
duty to say that in order to secure complete plans and cross- 
sections, and make a proper study sufficiently early to thus 
begin work, it is important that any appropriation for the further 
construction of roads should be made before March i. 

ORGANIZATION OF FIELD AND OFFICE WORK. 

Owing to the large amount of work required in the field 
studies, preliminary to the acceptance of a road, that is demanded 
in these sets of plans and contracts required by the law, and 
the book-keeping connected with the task of construction, it 
has been found necessary to employ a considerable executive 
force. This force is constituted and organized as follows : 

The general office work is under the charge of Mr. A. B. 
Fletcher, Clerk of the Commission. He is assisted by Mr. John 
M. McCarthy, stenographer, and Mr. A. H. Blevins, book- 
keeper. Mr. Edward A. Austin has acted as messenger. 

Mr. Charles Mills has charge of the engineering work, both 
in the office and in the field. Under him, engaged in drawing 
plans, the following persons have been employed : Mr. H. V. 
Sandford, Mr. C. A. S. Howlett, and Mr. G. E. Barstow. Mr. 
J. C. S. Taber, Mr. T. M. Keene and Mr. J. W. Pierce have 
been employed on surveys. The following is a list of the per- 
sons who have served as resident engineers of the woiks : 



MASSACHUSETTS HIGHWAY COMMISSION. 87 



Bigelow, F. S., 
Blaisdell, J. A., 
Boeckliu, W., 
Brooks, S. S., 
Brovvu, C. L., 
Crowell, J. H., 
Everett, P. H., 
Farr, L. N., 
Farringtoa, W. R., 
Farriugton, W. R., 
Floyd. F. G., 
Foster, E. S., 
Foster, E- S., 
Frohwitter, C. L., 
Haniniersle3', W. P. 
Johnson, C. H., 
Johnston, J. A., 
Marshall, G. D., 
M.Carter, F. W., 
Parks, Oren E., 
Power, E. P., 
Ruggles, E. F., 
Shaw, Stillman, 
Shaw, Stillman, 
Tower, T. P., 
"Warren, H. E-, 
Wheeler, R. C, 
Wheeler, W. B., 
Wheeler, W. B., 
Whitteniore, A. H., 



Plymouth, 

Great Harrington, 

Wrentham, 

Hadley, 

Fairhaven, 

Tisbury, 

Northampton, 

Lee, 

Hingham, 

Cottage City, 

Nantucket, 

Shelburne, 

Buckland, 

Marshfield, 

Granby, 

Walpole, 

Matlapoisett, 

Russell, Fairfield End, 

Marion, 

Westfield, 

Russell, Huntington End, 

North Attleboro, 

Leicester, 

Duxbviry, 

Goshen, 

Holden, 

Ashby, 

Fitchburg, 

Westminster, 

Pittsfield, 



Plymouth County, 
Berkshire County, 
Norfolk County, 
Hampshire County, 
Bristol County, 
Dukes County, 
Hampshire County, 
Berkshire County, 
Plymouth County, 
Dukes County, 
Nantucket County, 
Franklin County, 
Franklin County, 
Plymouth County, 
Hampshire County, 
Norfolk County, 
Plymouth County, 
Hampden County, 
Plymouth Couniy, 
Hampden County, 
Hampden County, 
Bristol County, 
Worcester County, 
Plymouth County, 
Hampshire County, 
Worcester County, 
Middlesex County, 
Worcester County, 
Worcester County, 
Berkshire County, 



It should be noted that nearly all the above-named gentle- 
men are temporarily engaged. Until construction is resumed 
there will be required only the force necessary for the field and 
office work demanded in the discussion of projects to be under- 
taken next year, and for the needed inspection of the work 
already done. 



TAX VEHICIvES IN PROPORTION TO THE INJURY 
THEY DO THE ROAD. 

THOSE public spirited men who are the holders of political 
offices are ever studying how they can procure the means 
for meeting public expenses and incidentally paying their 
salaries, and of late they have been turning their attention 
toward wheeled vehicles, and scheming in every way possible 
to draw money from the owners ; compelling the use of wide 
tires, and imposing a fine as a penalty for not complying with 
this demand is one way. Another scheme has been devised, 
which may or may not be carried out ; it is to compel everj^ 
owner of a private carriage to register it, for the purpose of 
taxation. It is possible that under the new city government 
this tax may be averted, but owners are on the lookout, and 
there will be a strong fight against such a law. If vigorous 
steps are not taken it will not be long before a tax will be 
imposed on vehicles that will curtail their use to an extent that 
will prove serious. — Hub News. 



STRIKING FACTS ABOUT HII^LS. 

BY GEN. ROY STONK. 

[Although this particular talk applied to New Jersey, it is equally valuable to 
most other sections. — Ed-] 

1 ¥ A HEN I spoke to you last month on the great work you 
ill have undertaken I had but little knowledge of the 
^J^ special difficulties of your task, and could only con- 
gratulate you on what you had already done and offer 
some general suggestions for the economical con- 
struction of your roads. 

To-day I can speak much more definitely. I have driven 
over a great part of the county to see what your roads are and 
what you can make of them, and I am compelled to say to you 
that in my opinion throughout three-fourths of the country you 
can do no good by macadamizing the roads unless many 
changes are made in their location. On the contrary, you will 
do great harm, for you will prevent the making of such changes 
in the future. 

Any costly resurfacing of the existing roads will fasten 
them where they are for generations. Your chief difficulty is 
not with your road surfaces, but with their high grades, most 
of which are too long to be reduced by cutting and filling on 
the present lines. Your roads were laid out, as is the custom 
in this country, without any attention to the general topog- 
raphy, and generally by following the settlers' path from cabin 
to cabin or by running along their farm lines, regardless of 
grades or direction ; and most of them still remain where they 
were laid and where untold labor has been wasted in trying to 
improve them. ■ 

No hilly region was ever better provided with natural road- 
ways. Low summits divide the waters of all your great inter- 
vales, and all your high plateaus have gently sloping valleys 
leading up to them. But your roads climb the steep hillsides, 
or, where they follow the valleys in the main, they cross all the 
foothills they come to instead of skirting round them. It would 
have been worth many millions to you to" have had them syste- 
matically and skillfully laid out in the beginning. 

Your hill townships would have been rich and prosperous 
to-day, and your towns would have cshared in their prosperity. 
All your leading roads would have been kept down to the limit 
prescribed for hilly regions in other countries ; that is, to a four 
per cent, grade, or four feet rise in loo, instead of lo, 12 or 15 
per cent., as you have them now. And if this had been done, 
one-half the cost of all the hauling that has ever been done to 
and from your farms and forests, mines and manufactories, 



STRIKING FACTS ABOUT HILLS. 89 

mills and stores would have been saved. How much would 
this have amounted to ? 

Take the Mendham and Morristown road, for example. 
Running from one place to another in the same valley, it goes 
over four great hills. Its traffic is drawn from a large territory, 
but the township of Mendham alone, at the low estimate of half 
a ton per acre carried annually, out and in, and at the rate of 
one dollar per ton extra for the hills, pays a hill tax of $7,000 
per year on its 14,000 acres. At the same rate for the other 
hill townships the total tax is over $100,000 per year. 

This is the burden you now have the power to lift off or to 
fasten on those townships forever. Multiply it by 100 and add 
50 years interest and see what it would have been worth to 
have dropped it a century ago. If these figures seem extrava- 
gant, go over them for yourselves. 

The average haul from the hill districts is not less than 
eight miles, and $2 per ton is not high pay for it. You will 
not doubt the saving of one-half of this by cutting down the 
hills if you look at the four per cent, grade in Court street, 
alongside this building, and then at the ten per cent, hill above, 
which is less than the ruling grade on most of your roads. 

As to the amount of haulage per acre, if the whole district 
were in thrifty timber its yearly growth would be over one ton 
per acre ( as is shown by the German Forestry Reports ) , and 
its present marketable product, with all the incidental hauling, 
cannot well be less than half as much. 

You are the first body which has ever had any authority 
over the road system of the county or which could take up the 
subject from the high standpoint of the general public interest. 
It is true your authority in the matter is only negative, but it is 
none the less absolute. You cannot change a single road, but 
you have only to say that you will not waste the county's 
money in stoning roads which are mislocated, and the roads 
will be promptly changed as you require. If not, you can wait, 
and you are quite as much responsible for the final result as if 
you had full power to make changes. 

It is clearly in your power to adopt a limit of grade above 
which you will not improve any road unless for special reasons 
shown. I am sure you will be justified by the people of the 
county in fixing a low limit, and applauded for spending a 
large portion of your funds in reducing the roads to that limit, 
either by cutting down hills or by going round them where it is 
necessary. This improvement is of ten times more consequence 
than improving the road surfaces where they are hilly. 

In the first place, you cannot materially improve the surface 
on a steep hill by stoning it, for it is naturally dry and hard. 
In the second place, for eight or nine months in the year your 
surfaces, for either wagons or sleighs, are good enough, while 



90 STRIKING FACTS ABOUT HILLS. 

the hills will cut down your loads all the year round. Accord- 
ing to the best authorities, you cannot gain more than a quarter 
or a third by macadamizing on a ten per cent, grade, while by 
cutting that grade down to four per cent, you can double your 
load ; and then can double it again by macadamizing the low 
grade. 

The four per cent, limit is fixed wherever it is practicable, 
because it is the highest grade which a horse will trot up with 
ease and down at full speed with safety. And again, for loaded 
teams, it is found that a horse by extra effort can pull twice as 
much for a short time as he can for all da}^ and a fair stone 
road at four per cent, rise will just double the pull that is 
required on a level. So that a team loaded for a long pull on a 
level stone road will take its load up a four per cent, hill with- 
out difficulty, by resting occasionally, if the hill is long. With 
your hills reduced to four per cent, and the roads stoned, 
farmers will be able to haul loads of four tons in all parts of the 
county, as is done now on the "State aid roads" in Camden 
and Burlington Counties. 

Some of the manufacturers in this count}'- have paid and are 
still paying a higher hill tax even than the farmers. The road 
from Morristown to Whippany, which should have been a 
straight and easy descent of three and one-half miles, takes 
three miles and three-quarters and goes over three hills, with a 
total rise both ways of 400 feet. One hundred and fifty tons of 
coal and mill freight are hauled daily over this road. The 
extra distance, and the hills, which are equal to two miles 
more, render it impossible to make more than two trips a day, 
and, though very strong teams are employed, and loads of i 1-2 
to 3 tons are hauled, the cost is 80 cents per ton. 

With a straight stone road, descending in the direction of 
the heaviest traffic and ascending by light grades in the oppo- 
site direction, the same teams would make three trips (21 
miles ) and double their loads, thus reducing the cost to 27 
cents per ton and saving $2000 per month. This sum, then, is 
the hill tax and mud tax combined, and the former is clearly 
three-fourths of the whole. The whole tax would build the 
new road in nine months. 

Many other roads in the county are worse even than those 
to Mendham and Whippany. From Boonton to Butler the 
road is steep and stony, and half a mile longer tha7i the valley 
alongside. Returning from Butler through the great valley 
region of the county, I expected to find a fine highway to the 
county seat, but at Pompton Plains I was told there was no 
road to Morristown; that all the travel was to Newark and 
Paterson ; and it is true there is no road through that straight 
and level valley. To reach Morristown I turned sixteen square 
corners and climbed up and down 2150 feet of hills, making a 



STRIKING FACTS ABOUT HILLS. 91 

hard half day's journey of what should have been an easy two 
hours' drive. 

If the new road to Whippany is made, an extension of eight 
miles through the meadows and a cut through the rock ridge 
which divides them from the plains will open all the northeast- 
ern part of the county, and the cutting will cost nothing, as the 
rock is good road metal. The northwestern section can be 
equally benefited by cutting through the summit at Green 
Pond Mountain on the Hamburg Pike (which is also good rock 
in boulders ) and passing around Maize Mountain through the 
adjacent valley, without increasing the distance, while avoiding 
one of the most difficult and dangerous passes in the county. 

The great thoroughfare through from Essex to Sussex is 
well laid and graded from Chatham to Morris Plains. Thence 
westward it is crooked and hilly, but it can be straightened and 
shortened and the hills avoided, except for a gentle rise to the 
higher level of the lake. In the western part of the county, 
Mt. Olive, Schoolej^'s Mountain and Chester can all be reached 
from both sides by four per cent, grades, and Mt. Freedom can 
be crossed at three per cent, with less than half a mile increased 
distance. 

For the whole county 75 to 100 miles of new road will be 
needed, which, if w^ell built, will take one-third of 3'our whole 
fund. But it will be money well spent, and will give you a 
splendid system of highways to commence your surface 
improvement upon. But, as the Spaniards say, " you cannot 
make omelets without breaking eggs," and you cannot correct 
the mistake of four or five generations without hurting some- 
body. You will encounter violent opposition to many of the 
necessary changes and your great danger will be of jdelding to 
local influences before there is time for the public to come to 
your support. But if you go slowly at first, if 3^ou fix your 
limit and do not allow yourselves to be rushed into any depart- 
ure from it until you are sure that the whole count}^ will justify 
you, all will be safe. 

Many of those who fancy they will be hurt by the changes 
will find themselves benefited instead, and if you simply mark 
out your new lines and postpone action on them till the people 
are familiar with their advantages, you will find your way made 
easy in nine cases out of ten. If, on the other hand, you make 
no limit and throw the whole burden upon the local freeholders 
in each case, unless the}^ are more than human your whole 
system of roads will be sacrificed to neighborhood influences, 
and you will have a beggarly piece of patchwork with the old 
hills and hollows, crooks and turns, perpetuated, and nothing 
to show for 3^our county debt and extra taxation but a wasted 
opportunity and a bar to good roads for all time to come. 







In the In 1866. In 1868. In 1870. 

Beginning. 

CONCERNING FEET. 

By Sterling Elliott. 
" Feet of great men oft remind us, 
We may make our own sublime, 
^ And, departing, leave behind us 

Fearful tracks along the line." 

THUS sings a Chicago poet. These jokes about feet are 
just as good as any jokes, but to me there is a serious 
side to the human foot which is not always considered as 
it should be. 

The ' ' young man ' ' is kicked out by the ' ' stern 
IDarent " and the world laughs and jokes about it just as though 
it was awfully funny, but to those most interested, those who 
would be expected to see the mirth in it if there was any, it 
contains naught that should cause even a smile. 

It is a significant fact that there were no chiropodists among 
the American Indians, until 

civilization like a deadly blight 

Came o'er the red man's wild retreat, 
And gave him new religious light, 

As well as corns upon his feet. 

The feet which were used by Adam in his morning walks 
among his wife's flower beds were much the same shape that 
human feet have been made ever since. I feel sure about this, 
because I saw a photograph of Adam not long ago in a museum 
and was informed by the young lady in charge that it was 
taken from life. Assuming, as I feel privileged to, that natural 
human feet do not change materially from year to year, a cause 
of no little speculation on my part has been this rapid evolution 
from one shape to another, of the apparel which is made to be 
worn on these same feet. 

Of course you have heard the old conundrum, "Why is a 
sword made curved ? ' ' Answer : "So that it will fit the 
scabbard." 

Well, that style of conundrum doesn't hit the shoe question, 



CONCERNING FEET. 



93 



but perhaps this one would : " Why are shoes made pointed ? " 
Answer : *' The lyord only knows." 

There is one encouraging feature yet, and that is that the 
deformity hasn't become hereditary. Babies are born with 
natural feet, and so long as this is the case we may hope. 

When Noah sent the dove out of his ark ' ' to see if it had 
cleared off," it is reported (see Genesis VII, 9) that "she 
found no rest for the sole of her foot," and I thought as I read 
that, how much this dove was like the modern young lady, and 
yet if the dealer in foot gear should offer her ' ' rest for the sole 
of her foot " she wouldn't take it, not even at a lower price. 

An old-time poet who flourished in spite of his name ( Sir 
John Suckling ) said in describing a bride : 

" Her feet beneath her petticoat 
I,ike little mice stole in and out, 
As if they feared the light." 

A singular thing about these little feet which ' ' steal in and 
out" is that they really don't " fear the light " half as much 
as the larger ones do. 

The Good Roads' artist has drawn some of the many 
shapes into which the human sole has been cast at various 
periods within the memory of the present generation. His 
prediction as to the probable style for 1899 may be taken with a 
mental reservation, for I believe that in spite of the occasional 
idiotic fashion which seems to be for the time almost universal, 
that we may always depend upon the average good sense of the 
multitude to come together once in a while on those things 
which are best. 




■^m 



JOSHUA .COMMANDING THE SON TO STAND STILI^. 




SUBURBAN ROADS. 

BY STAMSON. 

K\ PIvEASANT memory of a delightful Octolrer afternoon 

I I was a quiet saunter on our wheels — Mrs. Stam. and I — 

f\, through winding lanes under the rocky hillsides, 

J crunching beds of brown leaves that in summer time 

had sheltered us from the sunshine and rain ; passing 

the homes of the fisher- farmers along the cove, each of which 

has about it enough of poesy and the quaint and picturesque to 

fill a page. Then we turned southward and on down to the 

edge of the Sound's blue waters that in the middle distance 

were sea green, and farther away silver white where the setting 

sun lighted them up. 

Beyond all was blue-gray Long Island, on which we could 
see in that light the yellow sand dunes and a white speck or 
two of houses. Eastward and up the Sound, sky and water 
seemed to meet, but was punctuated with gleaming white sails 
at intervals, and there was staunch old Stamford light. 

Our last mile was on a road that had been made of gravel, 
nearly five years ago, and which has not had a cent spent on it 
for repairs since, showing all comers that it is much cheaper 
than a dirt road that has to be ^ or is generally — "worked" 
every year, besides being a thousand fold more satisfactory. 

This was the first section of civilized suburban road making 
about here, and has long since made Sound Beach mildly 
famous as having the best roads in Fairfieldshire. Eately, 
though, they have been neglected until in wet weather the joy 
of wheeling over them is very much diluted. 



SUBURBAN ROADS. 95 

No attempt has ever been made here to drain our roads, and 
in many places the bed is lower than the place where the 
gutters should be. Any boy six years old who would not use 
better judgment in road making should serve a good, long term" 
— say six months twice a year — in a reformatory. I hope this 
will meet not only the views but the eyes of those individuals 
who yearly either entirely neglect the out-of-town roads, or, 
pile on gutter wash and make them vastly worse than if left to 
the kind offices of Nature. 

As there is more than enough stone obstructing every farm 
to make a twenty-foot wide road in front of it, why do not some 
of our enterprising farmers set up a company stone-breaking 
plant, portable, and through the winter crush stone, enough to 
make good roads before each man's premises, exchanging work 
and dividing the expense between themselves and the township 
or county ? 

Why lie about and grow rusty all winter when such urgently 
needed work should be done ? One thing we want most at 
once is a law obliging all heavy wagons to have wide tires ; 
then another that forbids any brainless person holding any 
office in connection with road making. 

Again, reduce by one-half the taxes of every owner of land 
on highways if he or she is bright and progressive enough to 
see the advantage of and really do something for the making of 
roads that will not be a disgrace to themselves and the whole 
Yankee nation. 



CI.KAR AS MUD. 

A MAN may steal a horse and yet not be guilty of theft. 
Paradoxical though this may appear, it is nevertheless a 
fact, according to the learned justices of the Arkansas Supreme 
Court. A resident of that Commonwealth hired a mare of a 
livery-stable keeper to go a-junketing to a neighboring town, 
where he traded the mare for a gelding, sold the gelding and 
finished his junket on the proceeds of the sale. Realizing sub- 
sequently what he had done, he at once stole the mare from the 
man to whom he had traded her and returned her to her origi- 
nal owner. For this he was arrested, but the court, on appeal, 
held that he was guilty of no crime, because he did not take 
the mare with, as the lawyers say, "felonious intent," but 
" merely," in the language of the court, "to restore her to her 
proper owner." His first theft of the mare was a felony, but 
his second theft of her was not, all of which, while it may be 
clear as day to the legal mind, is somewhat incomprehensible 
to people of average intelligence. — Exchange. 



THE STATE ROADS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

BY GEO. A. PERKINS. 

( Chairman Massachusetts Highway Commission.) 







Geo. a. Perkins. 



^OAD improvement in this 
country is now an impor- 
tant factor in State as 
well as in municipal 
elections. It is incor- 
porated into party platforms, 
and candidates must now de- 
clare how they stand upon this 
issue. This has been brought 
about by constant agitation on 
the part of those who have 
made a study of the ques- 
tion from an economic stand- 
point and who have realized 
the immense loss resulting 
from the bad condition of the 
ways. 

In Massachusetts the question on a large scale was first 
brought before the Legislature in 1887. The people had not been 
made to realize the great importance of a better and more com- 
plete system of highways, so that at first the matter was not 
given that serious consideration it deserved. It was conceded 
that the roads were not of the best, but it was claimed that the 
cost necessary to improve them would be too great for the 
smaller towns to bear. It was argued to the Committee that 
much money was uselessly applied and wasted, and that there 
was an entire absence of systematic methods employed. It was 
shown that many towns were obliged to maintain long stretches 
of highway of little importance to them, but used as ways of 
communication between large centres. It was maintained that 
manufacturers, teamsters and farmers would be greatly bene- 
fited by the construction of a general system of roads, as the 
cost of transportation would be greatly reduced. 

The subject was annually brought before the Legislature, 
each successive year finding a larger number of advocates. In 
1892 the demand for action was so great that the Legislature 
gave it particular attention, and its committees gave a number 
of public hearings which were largelj^ attended by people from 
every section of the State, all agreeing that the State should 
lend its aid and assistance toward the construction and main- 
tenance of certain highways. The Legislature fully appre- 
ciated the force of the arguments, and realizing the great scope 
of the subject, enacted a law providing for the appointment of 
a commission of three to inquire into the entire subject and 
report to the Legislature of 1893, and granted a liberal appro- 
priation for the purpose. 



5 TA TE ROA DS OF MA SSA CHUSE TTS. 97 

The Commission thus created immediately commenced work 
and at the outset could find but little data from any published 
reports as to methods and cost of construction and maintenance 
of roads. It at once entered upon a comprehensive plan to 
obtain the desired information by public hearings, communica- 
tions with the different town officials and personal investigation 
by traveling over hundreds of miles of country roads. In its 
report made to the lyCgislature in 1893 the Commission showed 
the importance and necessity of legislation providing for a more 
uniform system of road construction and maintenance under 
scientific supervision. From the many public hearings given 
by the Commission and the replies to interrogatories sent to 
public officials, it became evident to the Commission that the 
existing system was defective, that the ways were in a generally 
bad condition and that the towns were unable to cope with the 
problem ; that there was need for the State to undertake the 
construction and maintenance of a comprehensive system of 
State highways. Outside of the cities there are a little more 
than twenty thousand miles of roads in Massachusetts. It is 
estimated that from ten to fifteen per cent, of this number are 
roads directly connecting the towns and large centres, and such 
as might reasonably be asked to be made State highways. Fully 
fifty per cent, of the annual appropriation for highways is 
expended for the maintenance of these intertown roads. By 
relieving the towns of the burdens of maintaining such roads, 
it can readily be seen that the towns can use this appropriation 
for the improvement of their town ways. 

After careful consideration of the Commission's report the 
I/Cgislature of 1893 enacted a statute which with the amend- 
ment made by the lyCgislature of 1894 is the law of Massa- 
chusetts to-day. It provides for the appointment of three 
competent persons to serve as the Massachusetts Highway 
Commission. Their terms of office shall be so arranged and 
designated at the time of their appointment that the term of 
one member shall expire in three years, one in two years, and 
one in one year. The full term of office thereafter shall be for 
three years. 

The duty and power of the Commission are defined, but 
among those of importance and value may be mentioned the 
following : They may be consulted at all reasonable times, 
without charge, by officers of counties, cities or towns having 
the care of and authority over public roads, and shall without 
charge advise them relative to the construction, repair, altera- 
tion or maintenance of the same ; but advice given by them to 
any such officers shall not impair the legal duties and obliga- 
tions of any city or town. --^ t-:*- 

They shall each year hold at least one public meeting in 
each county for the open discussion of questions relating to the 



98 STA TE ROADS OF MA SSA CHUSE TTS. 

public roads, due notice of which shall be given in the press or 
otherwise. 

They shall each year make a report to the Legislature. 

County Commissioners and city and town officers having the 
care of and authority over public roads and bridges throughout 
the Commonwealth shall, on request, furnish the Commis- 
sioners any information required by them concerning the roads 
and bridges within their jurisdiction. 

The law also contemplates the building of State highways 
and provides, whenever the County Commissioners of a county, 
or the Maj^or and Aldermen of a city, or the Selectmen of a 
town, adjudge that the public necessity and convenience require 
that the Commonwealth take charge of a new or existing road 
as a highway, in whole or in part, in that county, city or town, 
they may apply by a petition in writing to the Massachusetts 
Highway Commission, stating the road they recommend, 
together with a plan and profile of the same. 

Said Highway Commission shall consider such petition and 
determine what the public necessitj^ and convenience require in 
the premises, and, if they deem that the highway should be 
laid out or be taken charge of by the Commonwealth, shall file 
a plan thereof in the office of the County Commissioners of the 
county in which the petitioners reside, with the petition therefor 
and a certificate that they have laid out and taken charge of 
said highway in accordance with said plans, and shall file a 
copy of the plan and location of the portion lying in each city 
or town with the clerk of said cit}^ or town, and said highway 
shall, after the filing of said plans, be laid out as a highway, 
and shall be constructed and kept in good repair and condition 
as a highway by the said Commission, at the expense of the 
Commonwealth, and shall be known as a State road, and there- 
after be maintained by the Commonwealth under the super- 
vision of said Commission. And all openings and placing of 
structures in any such road shall be done in accordance with a 
permit from said Commission. Said Commission shall when 
about to construct any highway, give to each city and town in 
which said highway lies a certified copy of the plans and speci- 
fications for said highway, with a notice that said Commission 
is ready for the construction of said road. Such city or town 
shall have the right, without advertisement, to contract with 
said Commission for the construction of so much highway as 
lies within its limits, in accordance with the plans and specifi- 
tions, and under the supervision and subject to its approval at a 
price to be agreed upon by said Commission and said city or 
town. If said city or town shall not elect to so contract within 
thirty days, said Commission shall advertise in two or more 
papers published in the county where the road or a portion of it 
is situated, and in three or more daily papers published in 



STATE ROADS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 99 

Boston, for bids for the construction of said highway under 
their supervision and subject to their approval, in accordance 
with plans and specifications to be furnished by said Commis- 
sion. Such advertisement shall state the time and place for 
opening the proposals in answer to said advertisements, and 
reserve the right to reject any and all proposals. All such 
proposals shall be sealed and shall be kept by the board, and 
shall be open to public inspection after said proposals have 
been accepted or rejected. Said Commission may reject any or 
all bids, or if a bid is satisfactory they shall with the approval 
of the Governor and Council make a contract in writing, on 
behalf of the Commonwealth, for said construction, and shall 
require of the contractor a bond for at least twenty-five per 
cent, of the contract price to indemnify any city or town in 
which such highway lies against damage while such highway 
is being constructed ; and the Commonwealth shall not be liable 
for any damages occasioned thereby. All construction of State 
roads shall be fairly apportioned by said Commission among 
the different counties, and not more than ten miles of State 
road shall be constructed in any one county, in any one year, 
on petition as aforesaid, without the previous approval thereof 
in writing by the Governor and Council. 

For the maintenance of State highways, said Commissiou 
shall contract with the city or town in which such State high- 
way lies, or a person, firm or corporation for the keeping in 
repair and maintaining of such highway, in accordance with, 
the rules and regulations of said Commission, and subject to 
their supervision and approval, and such contracts may be 
made without previous advertisement. 

Upon the completion of the road one-quarter of the money 
expended is to be repaid by the county in which the way peti- 
tioned for lies, so that in the first instance the State pays for 
the entire expense, and collects of the county twenty-five per 
cent. In this way the towns and cities do not pay anything 
except the cost for the original survey for the plan and profile 
which must accompany the petition. 

Said Commission shall keep all State roads reasonably clear 
of brush, and shall cause suitable shade trees to be set out 
along said highways when feasible, and shall renew the same 
when necessary, and may also establish and maintain watering 
troughs at suitable places along said highways. 

No length of possession, or occupancy of land within the 
limit of any such highway, by an owner or occupier of adjoin- 
ing land shall create a right to such land in any adjoining 
owner or occupant or a person claiming under him, and any 
fences, buildings, sheds or other obstructions encroaching upon 
such State highway shall, upon written notice by said Commis- 
sion, at once be removed by the owner or occupier of adjoining 



loo STATE ROADS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

land, and if not so removed said Commission may cause the 
same to be done and may remove the same upon the adjoining 
land of such owner or occupier. 

Cities and towns shall have police jurisdiction over all State 
highways, and they shall at once notify in writing the State 
Commission or its employees of any defect or want of repairs 
in such highways. No State highway shall be dug up for the 
laying or placing of pipes, sewers, posts, wires, railways or 
other purposes, and no trees shall be planted or removed or 
obstruction placed thereon, except b}^ the written consent of the 
superintendent of streets or road commissioners of a city or 
town, approved by the highway commission, and then only in 
accordance with the rules and regulations of said Commission. 

Said Commission shall give suitable names to the State 
highways, and they shall have the right to change the name of 
any road that shall have become a part of a State highway. 

They ^ shall cause to be erected^ at suitable points along State 
highways, suitable guide posts. 

It will be seen that the Commission cannot la}^ out State 
highwa3'S unless petitioned for. 

The amended statute took effect June 20, 1894, and three 
hundred thousand dollars were appropriated. 

The Commission notified all county, city and town authori- 
ties that owing to the lateness of the season action could be 
expected this year only on such petitions as should be received 
by the first day of August. So great was the interest that 
eighty-five petitions were received up to that date. 

The statute requires that the Commission shall fairly appor- 
tion all construction of State roads among the several counties. 
The Commission apportioned the appropriation so that each 
county should receive nearly an equal share. It was thought 
wise to distribute the work so that sections could be constructed 
in as many places as possible, in order that the people could 
see what they might expect to be the policy and methods 
employed by the State, and that such roads would be object 
lessons. 

Under the law the municipalities in which a section of road 
to be constructed lies have the right, without previous adver- 
tisement and without bond, to contract directly with the Com- 
mission for the building of the same. 

The reasons for this are that the money expended shall go 
directly among the townspeople, that the officials and workmen 
may have experience in such work, and it creates an interest 
among the people for better and more systematic work and 
method on local roads. 

Of the eighty-five petitions, the Commission has acted 
favorably upon thirty-seven and has contracted for that num- 
ber of pieces averaging one mile each. These pieces in each 



STATE ROADS OF MA SSA CHUSE TTS. i o i 

case form a link in a through road, and in all probability will 
be extended. In this way it will take but a few years to com- 
plete a system of State roads. It can fairly be assumed that 
every town in the State will petition, and in a few years a State 
road will have been completed or commenced in every town. 
It is the aim of the Commission that State highways shall be 
inter-town roads leading to the large centres. 

The Commission furnishes blank petitions together with all 
necessary information. The law 'requires that each petition 
shall be accompanied by a plan and profile, the expense of 
which shall be borne by the petitioners. The Commission 
requires that all plans and profiles shall be of a uniform scale, 
forty (40) feet to the inch horizontal, and eight (8) feet to the 
inch perpendicular, samples of which and all necessary instruc- 
tions are given. The State then causes cross-sections of the 
road to be made thus enabling a thorough study of the grades. 

Although the Selectmen of a town or the Mayor and Alder- 
men of a city can under the statute petition for a State road, it 
requires the vote of a town meeting or the city council to 
authorize the Selectmen or Mayor to contract, so that in every 
case where the towns have contracted authority has been voted 
the officials. This shows that the people are in sympathy with 
the work. 

As might be expected the officials at first were somewhat 
fearful of the risk to be assumed in entering upon such a con- 
tract, as from lack of experience and knowledge they might 
not be able to comply with the terms of the contract, as well as 
the liability of causing a loss to the town. But after thorough 
explanation, and their implicit confidence in the Commission, 
and the fact that a Resident Engineer representing the State 
was to be always on the ground to direct and explain, these 
thirty-seven municipalities have contracted and entered upon 
the work with excellent results. 

The contracts are based on the unit plan, i. e., so much per 
ton for stone, so much per cubic yard for earth and rock excav- 
vation and for surface grading, so much per lineal foot for 
drains, fencing and pipe, so much per cubic yard for rubble 
masonry, so much per square yard for telford, etc. 

From the fact that the work was begun so late in the season 
only five sections have been completed, the remainder being in 
various stages of construction and will be completed in the 
spring. 

All work is done according to specifications and plans fur- 
nished by the Commission, the Engineer in Chief having 
charge of all the work. In each case a Resident Engineer or 
Inspector is provided who is constantly on hand to direct the 
work. He makes daily and weekly returns of all work done 
and all material used. The town has full charge of the labor 



I02 STATE ROADS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

and teams, and all contracts for the same are made in the name 
of the town". In this way the work is progressing admirably, 
and the road officials of the town are being taught how to build 
roads in a scientific manner. The towns are paid for all work 
and materials used up to the fifteenth of each month. 

With one exception broken stone has been used on all the 
roads. 

Bach road is carefully examined with reference to its natural 
soil, whether clay, loam, sand or gravel. Where the soil is 
clayey or heavy the Commission has used telford. The method 
of constructing this telford is to first shape the sub-grade to 
nearly correspond to the surface of the proposed finished road- 
way, and to roll this either with a steam or horse roller until it 
ceases to yield beneath the roller ; to put in a drain on both 
sides if necessary, connecting the drain with some culvert, 
watercourse, or main drain. The drain is made b)^ first exca- 
vating a trench to the depth of two and one-half feet below the 
centre of this sub-grade, the bottom of the trench being about 
one foot in width and the top from fourteen to sixteen inches 
wide. From two to three inches of gravel or broken stone are 
placed in the bottom of the trench, and on this is laid a five or 
six-inch vitrified clay pipe with open bell joints ; then on this 
pipe gravel from one-fourth to three- eighths of an inch in size, 
or broken stone, is filled to the depth of about a foot ; over this 
is filled coarser gravel or broken stone. The road surface is 
then covered with about four inches of gravel, and on this is 
laid the telford to the depth of about eight inches ; the telford 
is carefully laid by hand, covering as far as possible the whole 
surface of the ground, their spaces being filled in with wedge- 
shaped stones driven downward, the whole making a solid 
pavement. This telford foundation is then rolled with a steam 
roller so that when compressed it will be four inches thick ; on 
top of this is placed another layer of stone ranging from one- 
half to one and one-fourth inches in size which is thoroughly 
rolled by a steam roller to a thickness of two inches. No 
water is used upon these two courses. In this last layer of 
stone, from one-half inch to an inch of the finer "stone and dust 
from the crusher is spread. This is wet and rolled, and con- 
stitutes the binder. The method and process of building the 
macadamized road are the same as employed on the telford 
foundation. The Commission has found that upon loose sandy 
soils such stone is wasted by being driven down into the sand ; 
in such cases gravel, when accessible, has been placed upon 
the sand to a depth of three or four inches and on this is laid 
the stone. By so doing the cost of the work is greatly reduced. 
In one instance, on Martha's Vineyard, where the sand is very 
loose, cheap cotton cloth has been spread, upon this the stone 
is laid, and it is found that the sand does not work up through 



STATE ROADS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 103 

the stone, and much less stone is required. I^ayers of tarred 
paper were tried, but without success, as the stones were 
pressed through the same. 

Outside of the villages the width of the hardened way is 
made fifteen feet, with from two and one-half to three feet of 
gravel on either side. The crown on substantially level roads 
is made one-half inch to the foot, but on grades it is made 
greater. The thickness of the broken stone is in most cases 
six inches in the middle and four inches on the sides. In all 
cases a steam roller is required. On grades where considerable 
surface water is likely to flow, cobble stone gutters are laid on 
the sides. 

The Commission has not established any fixed grades, but 
so far the maximum has been five feet in the hundred. 

In some of the roads petitioned for there are street railway 
tracks. In each instance the Commission before it would lay 
out a road as a State highway has insisted that the municipal 
authorities cause the tracks to be located according to the plans 
of the Commission. 

Whenever the lines of the road as proposed by the Commis- 
sion have interfered with or cut off adjoining land, the towns 
have procured releases signed by the owners, relieving the 
State of any claim for land or grade damage. 

At all angles in the road are placed stone monuments, six 
feet long, six inches square on top and dressed twelve inches 
from the top. On one side is cut the letters " M. H. B." 
standing for Massachusetts Highway Bound. The monuments 
are set five feet under ground. 

When the road is completed and accepted, it is a State 
highway, and the State then assumes the maintenance of it 
ever after. This is one of the greatest advantages gained to 
the towns, as by this relief the annual appropriation can be 
used for permanent improvements upon other roads. One of 
the results of the work by the Commission is that towns are 
looking more to permanent work, and in some cases it has been 
voted at town meetings that a portion of the appropriation shall 
be set aside for such purposes. 

At the beginning of the work by the State there were but 
few towns owning stone crushers and steam rollers. There 
were several large crushing plants in the State owned by 
private parties. Stone could be obtained from these and deliv- 
ered on cars to points on railroads at an average price of one 
dollar and forty cents per ton. This was for stone delivered in 
proper sizes. But when the road to be constructed was a con- 
siderable distance from the cars, the cost of hauling brought 
the price so high that it became necessary to devise some other 
means. Therefore, arrangements have been made with parties 
owning crushing plants to set up a crusher, elevator, screen 



I04 STATE ROADS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

and bins and break the stone at from thirty to forty cents per 
ton. The agents of the several crusher machines have entered 
into this, so that no difficulty is now had. In many instances 
the town has purchased a plant and breaks the stone. The 
town delivers the stone in sizes suitable for the crusher. 

When a town does not own a steam roller, arrangements 
have been made with private parties and agents to let one to 
the town, the town paying for the use either by the day or per 
ton of stone rolled. As in the case of stone crushers many 
towns are buying rollers. 

The Commission, as called upon by the law has given a 
series of hearings in the counties. These have been largely 
attended by people coming to seek information as to road build- 
ing and maintenance. There has been great interest shown in 
the work of the Commission and enthusiasm expressed for the 
continuation of the State roads. 

Surveys are being made by many towns, and by spring no 
doubt many more petitions will be received. It is believed that 
a substantial sum will be appropriated for 1895, and that the 
work begun will be continued. 



WHERE IS THIS BLUNT OIvD BRIDGE BUIIvDER 

NOW? 

WK KNOW A HUNDRED PIPAGES WHERE HE IS WANTED TO 

BUIED ROADS. 

THE following good story comes from an authentic source. 
Some years ago the floods carried away a bridge on the 
Michigan Central, and until it could be replaced there was a 
suspension of traffic. Said the general superintendent to the 
blunt, hard-working old master bridge builder: " You must put 
all your men on that bridge ; they must work all night, and the 
bridge must be completed by daylight. The chief engineer 
shall furnish you with the plan, and you go right ahead." 

Early next morning the general superintendent, in a very 
doubtful frame of mind, met the old bridge builder. 

"Well," said the general, "did the engineer give you a 
plan for the bridge?" "General," returned the old man 
slowly, " the bridge is done. I don't know whether the plan is 
or not. ' ' — Ink Drops. 



A NKW COMFORT FOR THE SICK. 

THE PNEUMATIC-TIRED AMBULANCE AS USED BY NEW YORK 

HOSPITALS. 

5 WO rubber-tired ambulances have been in constant use for 
several weeks past at the New York Hospital — one 
equipped with pneumatic and the other with solid tires. 
Ever since rubber tires first promised to come into suc- 
cessful use on vehicles the superintendent of the hospital, 
Mr. George P. IvUdlam, has kept in mind the desirability of 
such tires for amibulance-wheels. 

lyast year he had one of those vehicles fitted out with new 
rims and tires three inches in diameter that have since been in 
regular service without a puncture or deflation. The weight of 
the ambulance alone is 1,850 pounds, besides which it usually 
carries the weight of several persons. It is, therefore, the 
heaviest pneumatic-tired vehicle in the world. The other 
ambulance referred to is furnished with solid tires, held in steel 
clamps, as in the case of carriage wheels in use in New York. 

' ' While I am not yet ready to express an opinion as between 
the pneumatic and the solid tire," said Superintendent IvUdlam 
to The India Rubber Wo7ld, " I can declare myself decidedly in 
favor of rubber. The increased comfort to the injured or sick 
person who has to be carried in an ambulance over our rough 
streets is often very great. There is an advantage, too, in the 
case of nervous persons, in the lessened noise due to the use of 
rubber. Besides, the rumbling of ambulance wheels on the 
hospital premises has been lessened by the rubber tires, which 
is a relief to everybody in the institution. There is still 
another important advantage — with rubber tires the weight of 
'the ambulances can be reduced 400 pounds or more. We have 
made our ambulances very heavy on purpose to give them 
stability and to reduce jolting, but as the rubber tires will offset 
the ill effects of jolting, we can spare a large part of the weight 
of the vehicles, much to the relief of the horses. 

"So far, we have met with drawbacks in the use of both 
kinds of tires. The pneumatic tires collapsed almost the first 
time they were put to practical use, though I must say that for 
several weeks now we have had no repetition of the trouble. 
The trouble with the solid tires, on the other hand, has been 
that they are liable at any moment to be pulled from the 
channel or clamp holding them to the wheel rim. We are 
obliged to keep in our stable a machine for replacing the rubber 
— an operation of frequent necessity. But in the case of both 
styles of tires I feel that the drawbacks can be remedied. 
Which form we shall adopt in the end it is impossible to say 
but that we shall continue the use of rubber is certain." 



ISAAC B. POTTER. 

(Frontispiece. ) 

COOD ROADS takes pleasure in presenting this month, as 
its frontispiece, a portrait of the man who, more than 
any other, was responsible for its beginning, and who, 
as managing editor, steered it through its first two years 
of infancy and childhood. 
The chief end of Mr. Potter, as will be seen on referring to 
his photograph, bears little resemblance to the Sutherland 
sisters, to whom he is distantly related, but as 

" Beauty draws us with a single hair," 

he is still " in the swim " and seems likely to be for some time 
to come. 

We have never been able to ascertain Mr. Potter's exact 
age, but should guess that he is about forty. 

He is old enough to " know a hollyhock from a hoe handle," 
and young enough to be a most agreeable and entertaining 
companion. 

The name of no man is more widely known in I^. A. W. 
circles than is that of Isaac B. Potter. 

He is a hard fighter and when he isn't a winner he is what 
the sporting fraternity would designate a " good loser." 

We recently ran across an old gentleman who had the honor 
at one time of acting as young Potter's Sunday School teacher. 
He tells some amusing tales of "little Ike," as he affection- 
ately called him, of which the following is a sample : 

Each member of the class was directed to commit to memory 
two verses of Scripture, and all who could recite them creditably 
on the following Sunday were to receive souvenir cards. 
Potter's assignment was the ' ' two first verses ' ' of the third chap- 
ter of the gospel according to St. John. 

At the appointed time the incipient lawyer rose to his feet 
and in a very confident manner recited the first verse and sat 
down. The teacher noted the absence of the second verse, but 
went on with the exercises and at the close distributed cards to 
all except the subject of our sketch. Little Isaac B. " arose to 
a point of order ' ' and demanded to know why he was not to 
have one of the coveted cards. On being informed that he had 
carried out but one-half of his part of the contract, he ' ' filed 
a protest," which, being "overruled, " caused him to "appeal 
from the decision of the chair ' ' on the following technicality : 

"Teacher, you said I was to learn the 'two first verses,' 
and I couldn't see but one first verse and so I learned that." 

He got the card. 

His earlier education was obtained at Troy, N. Y. He 



ISAAC B. POTTER. 107 

afterward took a course in civil engineering at Cornell Univer- 
sity and followed that profession for several years. 

He took up the subject of law in 1880 and the following 
year added himself to the census of New York in which he has 
been counted ever since. 

He joined the L. A. W. about ten years ago, and was 
appointed chairman of the Rights and Privileges Committee of 
the New York Division in 1887 by Chief Consul Bid well. 

At that time the famous "Central Park Case" was before 
the Court of Appeals. 

A great deal of time and money had been spent in an 
attempt to settle whether or not a bicycle might be ridden over 
the sacred soil of Central Park. What might have been the 
result in court is not so clear, but Potter believed it was better 
to invoke the ' ' power behind the throne ' ' than to monkey 
too much around the throne itself. Accordingly, he drafted the 
now immortal " I^iberty Bill," packed his grip and went up to 
Albany and engaged a permanent boarding place, which he 
occupied until his bill became a law. 

The following is a copy of the bill which was passed with- 
out amendment : 

ivAWS OF 1887. 
AN ACT in relation to the use of Bicycles and Tricycles. The 
People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly , do enact as follows : 

Section i. Bicycles, tricycles and all other vehicles propelled by manumotive or 
pedomotive power, are hereby declared to be carriages within the meaning of that 
term as used in section one of title thirteen of chapter twenty of part one of the Re- 
vised Statutes of the State of New York, and all persons by whom bicycles and tri- 
cycles and said other vehicles are used, ridden or propelled, upon the public highways 
of this state, shall be entitled to the same rights and subject to the same restrictions 
in the use thereof as are prescribed in said Revised Statutes in the cases of persons 
using carriages drawn by horses. 

Sec. 2. The commissioners, trustees or other authorities having charge or control 
of any public street, public highway, public parkway, driveway or public place in 
thi« state, shall have no power or authority to pass, enforce or maintain any ordinance, 
rule or regulation, by which any person using a bicycle or tricycle, shall be excluded 
or prohibited from the free use of any public highway, street, avenue, roadway, drive- 
way, parkway or public place, at any time when the same is open to the free use of 
persons having and using other pleasure carriages. 

Sec. 3. Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent the passage, en- 
forcement or maintenance of any regulation, ordinance or rule, regulating the use of 
bicycles or tricycles in public highways, streets, driveways, parkways and public 
places in such manner as to limit and determine the proper rate of speed with which 
such vehicles may be propelled, nor in such manner as to require, direct or prohibit 
the use of bells, lamps, and other appurtenances, nor to prohibit the use of any vehicle 
upon that part of the street, highway or parkway, commonly known as the foot-path 
or sidewalk. 

Sec. 4. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are 
hereby repealed. 

Sec. 5. This act shall take effect immediately. 

From this splendid beginning the courts have established 
beyond question the right of the bicycle to use any road that is 
open to the horse-drawn vehicle. 

In 1888 Mr. Potter began writing for magazines and news- 
papers on the subject of road improvement ; this he has kept 
up more or less steadily ever since. 



io8 ISAAC B. POTTER. 

In 1891 he published, under the auspices of the ly. A. W., 
a sixty-four page book entitled " The Gospel of Good Roads," 
which was a most effective ' ' campaign document ' ' and was 
widely noticed. This " gospel " was virtually the starting of 
the Good Roads magazine, which was decided upon during 
the same year, and its first number issued January ist, 1892, 
with Mr. Potter as captain, pilot and general deck hand. 

That Good Roads has accomplished much, there can be no 
doubt; that I. B. Potter is mainly responsible for it we most 
cheerfully admit. 

Last summer he started in to collect and publish special 
information upon the building of different kinds of roads, the 
intention being to so furnish the subject matter as to help each 
locality to exactly the sort of information needed. 

At the last State election of the New York Division, I^. 
A. W., Mr. Potter was chosen Chief Consul. 

We predict for him a successful reign, and sincerely hope 
that he may live long and be happy. 

And when at last " his head is silvered o'er with age," and 
the calm seclusion of his private chimney corner claims his 
waking hours ; when no more the bugle blast of public duty 
shall call him from that sacred hearth ; when he shall be per- 
mitted to come in out of the reign and spend the declining 
years of his busy life amid the loving kindnesses of his devoted 
grandchildren. 

Then shall it be the pleasant duty of the L. A. W. historian 
to note upon the variegated page, the cheerful fact that through 
all the ups and downs, and straits and narrows, and dips and 
spurs and angles of the lycague's erratic course, there were 
staid and earnest men who gave not up to dreary doubt, but 
hoped and worked toward better ends, and looking ever toward 
the longed-for day when "everybody's business" should not 
lag, but would command the heart and soul of faithful workers 
everywhere. 

And when that honored roll is called, and they who wear 
the veteran's badge stand forth to give account, we look for no 
alphabetical arrangement, but shall expect to see at least one 
name which begins with P placed high among the A, B, C's. 



^i POPULARITY disarms envy in well disposed minds. 
1 Those are ever the most ready to do justice to others 
who feel that the world has done them justice. 

"When success has not this effect in opening the mind, it is a 
sign that it has been ill deserved." — Hazlitt. 



THE FINANCIAI^ QUESTION. 

BY SIMON SCHRIVER. 

SHE financial question (and the question of good roads) at 
this juncture are paramount to any other, and sugges- 
tions from the people are opportune. 

The national debt is in round numbers one thousand 
millions. 
. Having spent the equivalent, we concede its validity. 

As the government is the people — and as we as individuals 
help to make up the government — and if the debt is paid, it 
must be paid by the people — and as the use of the money to 
the people is worth more than the rate at which it can be 
provided, I would have the government issue bonds or notes 
equal in amount and exchange them for its entire demand obli- 
gations ; followed by a similar exchange for the bonded 
indebtedness as fast as it becomes due. These bonds or notes 
should be the size of the usual bill, and without coupons. They 
should run for forty years, and be redeemed at the rate of i 1-2 
per cent, a year. They should bear interest at the rate of one 
per cent, per annum — the interest to accrue from year to year 
at that rate, and not compounded. The bonds to pass at their 
face value only until maturity, when the accrued interest would 
be added to the face value. 

The amount to be redeemed one year from date should be 
stamped with the figure one and year of their maturity. The 
amount redeemable in two years should be stamped with the 
figure two, with the year of their redemption. 

The principal and interest to be paid in gold and to be a 
legal tender for all purposes. 

' This would entirely relieve the government from embarass- 
ment by liability to meet demand obligations, and make unnec- 
essary the issue of bonds for the protection of its reserve. As 
a result, the bonds maturing one year from date would be 
withdrawn from circulation in nine months, as by holding for 
three months for redemption would bring the holders four per 
cent, interest — and so on by the further application of this 
fact. The banks could do business on their capital and 
deposits, as the entire debt could be turned into currency for 
circulation. To prevent contraction, the amount redeemed in 
any one year and destroyed, could be replaced by an equal 
amount, and made payable the year following the last to be 
redeemed. The extinction or perpetuity of the debt could be 
regulated, if desired, by future legislation — by an act that 
would not conflict with the present enactment. 

Under this proposition the interest paid by not compounding 



no THE FINANCIAL QUESTION. 

would be. but a small part of one per cent. This plan would 
meet present emergencies. 

If in the future it was found by the accrued interest a con- 
traction was produced, that could be provided for when it 
appeared. The time, forty j^ears, as above, is used merely to 
illustrate, and could be extended or shortened as best might 
subserve the plan. The principle would remain the same. 

The government's plan seems to be abortive. With a 
reserve of eighty-six millions, and growing less so soon after 
selling one hundred millions in bonds, proves how very uncer- 
tain the present method is. 

While the above plan is simple, it is practicable, and I 
would like to read the objections that can be made to it by the 
members of the Baltimore Convention, whose grand effort is to 
get an immense circulation to their great gain, and which 
cannot be done with the approval of the people who under- 
stand it. 

A privileged class in any community is unjust, and if legis- 
lated upon the people, will cause rapidly to increase Populistic 
and Socialistic tendencies. 

A democratic republican government with universal suf- 
frage is in danger of subversion unless the rights of the common 
people are fairly protected. 

Money is power — and the strength and cupidity of the 
capitalist cannot be denied, as shown by former legislation, to 
bring greenbacks at par in gold, instead of making it the policy 
of the government to pay a large part of the debt in the way it 
was created, i. e., when thirty-five dollars in gold would get a 
bond for one hundred dollars, interest and principal to be paid 
in gold, which at its premium caused the government to pay 
forty-three per cent, interest. 

The proposition that a bank with a million capital shall 
receive $750,000 in currency by depositing with the government 
thirty per cent, in greenbacks, resulting in a gratuitous circu- 
lation of $525,000, is a policy the cupidity of the banker or 
other beneficiary would approve, but against which the common 
people who understand it will demur. 

The effect would be that banks would become so numerous 
by the circulation given them as to be established in hamlets, 
followed by failures, with a tax upon the solvent to make good 
the loss. I think the plan of the Baltimore Convention and 
that of Secretary Carlisle and his substitute, with the recom- 
mendations of Chairman Springer, should all be reconsidered 
and not become a law. 



WHEEIvMEN'S SIDE PATHS. 

THERE is, so far as I know, but one Side Path League in 
the whole United States, but nevertheless, wherever 
bicycles are used and wherever bad roads are found, and that is 
pretty much everywhere, there you will find the wheelmen's 
side paths. 

Let us suppose that a club of fifty members is out for a cen- 
tury run. Twenty-five miles from the city they come suddenly 
upon a piece of particularly bad road. From gufter to gutter 
the highway is nothing but a bed of sand, but on the right 
hand side the sand happens to be of less depth than elsewhere. 
The club at once strings out and the members pass along single 
file. The result, of course, is that the sand is beaten down or 
pushed aside by the wide tires, and a narrow path is made by 
the side of the road where one may walk or ride with some 
degree of comfort. 

But the thing doesn't stop here. The next wheelman who 
happens that way sees where his fellows have passed and follows 
in their tracks, as it were. And so it goes on. At the end of 
a few months, the narrow path by the side of the road has been 
beaten down until it is as hard and almost as smooth as a pave- 
ment. Of course, pedestrians who use the side path which the 
wheelmen have made, aid in the work to a certain extent, but 
their aid is of such little consequence that it is hardly worth 
mentioning. 

These side paths are not only sources of great pleasure and 
comfort to touring wheelmen, but they are silent preachers of 
the gospel of wide tires. What a pity that so few of our law 
makers have the sense to profit by their teachings ! A bicycle, 
weighing with its rider usually less than two hundred pounds, 
is fitted with a tire varying in size from an inch and a half to 
two inches in diameter. Few light carriages have tires of more 
than seven-eighths of an inch in width, while even on the heavy 
work wagons a tire larger than two inches is the exception 
rather than the rule, and many are fitted with tires even smaller 
than that. Comparatively speaking, a ten-inch tire would be 
none too wide for the heavy work teams, but if they will use 
tires of even half that width we will be satisfied. How much 
better roads we might have if the teamsters would but learn the 
lesson taught by the wheelmen's side paths. 

Harry Rambler. 



A NOVEI. METHOD OF ROAD REPAIRING. 

MR. JEFF VAN NORT, of Hamilton, Caldwell County, 
says of the roads in his neighborhood : 
' ' About fifteen years ago we began the improvement of the 
roads in this township. The farmers turned out in the fall and 
we all worked nearly two weeks in grading them up and bridg- 
ing the little brooks and rivulets. We pledged one another to 
keep them in repair voluntarily. Next spring we made cheap 
scrapers by inserting a pole into a slab, setting the slab at an 
angle. From that date to this the farmers along our roads 
have kept them up by dragging these scrapers over them. 
When Neighbor Jones, living at the east end of the road, has 
occasion to go over it, he hitches a scraper behind his wagon 
and drags it the distance he goes in such a way that it throws 
the dirt from, say the south side of the road, to the centre, 
filling up ruts and bumps. Neighbor Smith, going in an oppo- 
site direction, comes along with his wagon, picks up the scraper 
where Jones cast it off and drags it along the north side of the 
road, throwing the dirt to the centre. The straw, hay and other 
substances mix with the dirt and are pressed down in the 
centre, and the sun converts the mass into adobe. We have as 
good roads as any in the country and they are kept up in this 
way. No tax, no working the roads — only voluntary labor. 
Every man is ashamed not to do his part. I do not see why 
other communities cannot do what we have done. — SL Paul 
Pioneer Press. 



GOOD ROADS IS THE ACCEPTED AUTHORITY ; ASK FOR IT AND 
TAKE NO OTHER. 

^''T'HE only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other 

1 woes of mankind is wisdom. 

Teach a man to read and write and you have put into his 
hands the great keys of the wisdom box. But it is quite 
another matter whether he ever opens the box or not. And he 
is as likely to poison as to cure himself, if, without guidance, 
he swallows the first drug that comes to hand." — Professor 
Huxley. 



AN INTERESTING I.ETTER. 

office; of 
Chapin & Gould, 
crescent mills, 
Springfikld, Mass. 

^^DITOR Good Roads : Dear Sir — In reply to your ques- 
^ tions regarding tlie use of wide tires on heavy wagons, 
^ we would state that we are in general pleased with the 
^^^ results of our experiments. 

The State roadway between our mill and Huntington 
is about 1 8 feet in width and is a first-class paved (macada- 
mized ) road. 

This road before the State improved it was a common, 
gravelled country road, muddy and soft in the spring and fall. 
We had much trouble in teaming with tires 2 1-2 to 3 inches 
wide. After some months these 3-inch tires would be crowned, 
showing that the edges received the most wear, and the road 
would be badly cut into deep ruts. We successively tried 3 1-2, 
4, and 4 1-2 inch tires and noticed marked improvement with 
each increase of width. 

The road now being finished, we shall put 5-inch tires on in 
the spring and expect to draw heavier loads with greater ease 
and with a saving of at least one horse. 

On hard roads the wide tire acts as a roller and prevents 
gullying ; on sandy roads the wide tire is a distinct advantage, 
it gets a better bearing and does not sink so deeply into the 
sand. 

In our opinion the use of wide tires on heavy wagons will 
become general when the beneficial results are better known. 
The cost of repairing the roads will be materially lessened, the 
wear and tear of stock will be reduced, greater loads can be 
carried at the same expense, time will be saved, and lastly, 
wheelmen will appreciate the advantages in the improved con- 
dition of the roads. Yours truly, 

Chapin & Gould. 

Springfield, Mass., Dec. 19, iJ 



' ' The wisest man is generally he who thinks himself the 
least so." 



FORCING THE WIDE TIRE. 

THE friends of good roads go too far in their efforts to 
improve the highways. They say to the owner of vehi- 
cles : " You must use a wide tire, whether you wish it or 
not." And by entailing the expense of making the 
change from a narrow to a wide tire, they antagonize an 
element that should be working in accord with the road maker, 
namely : the farming community. It is all very nice for a man 
who has been used to paved streets to insist upon the farmer 
keeping the highways in good order ; it costs him nothing, but 
it does cost the farmer something, and until the latter has 
learned the advantages of good roads, it is judicious to avoid 
unnecessary legislation. It is claimed that " if any owner has 
a right to control the property owned, then the government of a 
certain area, as, for instance, a State has a right to say what 
use shall be made of the roads which it must maintain." This 
sounds well, and would be logical if the State owned the roads, 
which it does not, except as trustee. The deed of every farmer 
calls for a specific number of acres, the road line of which 
extends to the middle of the highway. In the State of New 
York the general law makes the minimum for the road three 
rods wide, but local commissions may make them four rods 
wide on petition of a majority of those whose lands front on the 
highway to be widened. And in the same way wide roads maj'' 
be reduced to the minimum width ; and in many parts of the 
State there are cross roads where those running in one direc- 
tion are wide and others narrow. The farmer may plant fruit 
trees along the highway in front of his farm, providing he does 
not interfere with the three-rod limit, and can arrest for theft 
any person who picks the fruit. The farmer is in fact the 
owner of the land, but the law requires that he shall give up a 
portion for a highway for general use, and it is doubtful if he can 
be punished for using a vehicle upon that part of his farm more 
than on any other. Let us encourage good road building, but 
not by oppressive laws which are of doubtful legality. — The Hzcb. 

In its criticism The Hub quotes from Good Roads and 
assumes that the State doesn't own the highways, and hence 
cannot dictate to the farmer who practically does own them. 

We appreciate that part of the Hiib's argument which says 
that the farmer should not be foixed to use wide tires. We 
also think he should not, except as we believe his self interest 
will force him eventually to use them. 

Encouragement in the way of properly adjusting the tax on 
wagons in proportion to the width of tires, with possibly some 
restrictions as to the manufacture of new wagons, is all that 
Good Roads believes necessary to settle the narrow tire question. 



I i ON. THOMAS B. REED, ex-speaker of the House of 
^j Representatives, in an address to the graduating class 
j I of the Peirce College of Business, in the Academy of 
J Music, Philadelphia, December 21st, speaking of the 

^ various forms of wealth and the comforts and benefits 

arising from and made possible thereby, made the following 
significant allusion to the country road as an asset of the 
nations, and as a factor in contributing to the wants and neces- 
sities of the human race : 

' ' One of the greatest civilizers of the world is something 
we hardly think of, either as a civilizer or as wealth — the 
common country road. Few people ever think how much roads 
cost us. They represent the surplus labor of centuries. They 
make possible the transfer of the abundance of one region to 
supplement the want of another. And yet, the modern road, 
crossing the country in all directions, traversible by carriages 
and carts, as well as beasts, does not go back to the times of 
good Queen Bess. Indeed, in her reign thousands might 
star^^e, and did starve in one county, while abundance filled the 
granaries of the others. 

" Think of men and women and children starving from mere 
lack of that form of wealth which we call roads in the days 
when Drake and the great captains were scouring the seas in 
search of the Spanish galleons and Spanish gold, and when the 
military might of England hurled back the Spanish Armada 
and all the power of the greatest nation on the face of the 
globe. In the very heart of lyondon, in the street named after 
the King himself, the only way one of the Edwards could get 
to his Parliament was to fill with great bunches of fagots the 
holes in the street." r-J,^-^ 

IN the discussion on " Broad Tires on Loaded Vehicles," at 
the State Board of Trade meeting at Norwich on Wednes- 
day. Mr. Cheney, of Manchester, said the concern with which 
he was connected had purchased, some years ago, wagons with 
tires six inches wide. His neighbors had followed his example, 
and a great improvement had been noted. In making the roads 
in Manchester, the teamsters were instructed not to track each 
other, but to overlap w^agon tracks. This had resulted, with 
the use of broad tires, in such a thorough rolling of the roads 
in Manchester that a roller was not necessary. In East Hart- 
ford the roads are being rapidly spoiled by narrow tires upon 
coal wagons. The resolution of the Norwich Board of Trade, 
regarding petitioning the Legislature to pass a law restricting 
the use of narrow tires on wheels carrjdng heavy loads was 
referred to the committee on highways. — Co?m. Exchange. 



THIS month is famous for several things, but in ly. A. W. 
circles it is most thought of as the time when the lycague 
comes face to face with its annual crisis. 

When the expectant candidate greets the rural proxy holder 
with a smile, and then another and another. 

When the " cut and dried " sometimes fails to pan out, and 
the unexpected is liable to happen. 

When the usual courtesies are extended from several direc- 
tions, and the guests vote on who shall act as the summer host. 

The new men are congratulated. 

Those who go out congratulate themselves, and we disperse 
and settle down again to a year of ( let us hope ) peace and 
prosperity. 



Day 


Day 


Day 


Lengthof 


of 


of 


of 


Day. 


Year. 


Month. 


Week. 


H. M. 


32 


1 


Fr. 


ID GO 


33 


2 


Sa. 


10 03 


34 


3 


S. 


10 05 


35 


4 


M. 


ID 08 


36 


5 


Tu. 


10 11 


37 


6 


W. 


10 13 


38 


7 


Th. 


10 15 


39 


8 


Fr. 


10 18 


40 


9 


Sa. 


10 21 


41 


10 


S. 


10 23 


42 


11 


M. 


10 26 


43 


12 


Tu. 


ID 28 


44 


13 


W. 


10 31 


45 


14 


Th. 


10 33 


46 


15 


Fr. 


10 36 


47 


16 


Sa. 


10 39 


48 


17 


S. 


10 41 


49 


18 


M. 


ID 44 


50 


19 


Tu. 


ID 47 


51 


20 


W. 


10 50 


52 


21 


Th. 


10 52 


53 


22 


Fr. 


10 55 


54 


23 


Sa. 


10 58 


55 


24 


S. 


II 01 


56 


25 


M. 


II 03 


57 


26 


Tu. 


II 06 


58 


27 


W. 


II 09 


59 


28 


Th. 


II 12 



SECOND A 



February, 1895 ^ mo 



NTH 



Soon comes again the riding season. 
Unless you are deprived by sickness. 
Business or death, you will enjoy the 
Sunshine and pleasant weather. 
Constant outdoor exercise 
Reduces the desire to find fault. 
Induces restful sleep and 
Benefits the rider who improves 
Every opportunity to get out of doors. 

Read Good Roads magazine, 

For the benefit of all who drive 
Or ride, it is important to have 
Roads which are passable. 

and keep up with the 

Generally speaking the roads 
Of this country are improving. 
Older nations will not always 
Deserve the credit of supremacy. 

procession. Your dollar 

Regularly organized road agitation 
Of the most earnest kind, 
And of the sort that counts, 
Demands public attention and 
Secures prompt action in most cases. 

is just as good as any other dollar, 
and it will help the ghost to w^alk 
just so much farther. " "There is 
no time like the present." 



LEAGUE OF AMERICAN WHEELMEN. 

Organized 1880. .".'.'.'. 

A voluntary organization having for its object the systematic 
improvement of the public roads, and the protection of 
wheelmen against unjust legislation. The present officers 
of the League are as follows : 

Prestdeni.—CnAS. H. I^USCOMB, 280 Broadway, New York. 

First Vice-President.— K. C. WII<I,ISON, 47 Baltimore Street, Cumberland, Md. 

Second Vice-President.— GJB,0. A. PERKINS, 15 Court Square, Boston, Mass. 

Secretary.— PLEBOT BASSUTT, 46 Van Buren Street, Chicago. 

Treasurer.— W . M. BREWSTER, 411 Francis Street, St. Joseph, Mo. 



GOOD ROADS MAGAZINE. 

Published on the first of every month by the League of American Wheelmen. 

Devoted to Highway Improvement. 

Sterling BlIvIOTT, Managing Editor. 

Publication Office, 12 PEARL STREET, - - - BOSTON, MASS. 

Correspondence relating to advertising only 
should be addressed to 167 Oliver Street. 

Entered at Boston Post Office as second-class matter. 






Please send Good Roads for year. 

To 



Street, 



Town. 



Amt. enclosed County 

Beginning with State, 



Opepipq of ^i Cbejtrjut Burr^ 



' ' Why does a bicycle stand 
up ? " is a question which 
has been quite thoroughly dis- 
cussed by the scientific press. 

What the average beginner 
most wants to know is, why 
a bicycle does7i't stand up. 



CERTAINLY NOT. 

Suppose a neighbor should desire 
To light a candle at your fire, 
Would it deprive 5'our flame of light 
Because another profit by't? 

— Robert Lloyd. 



GOOD ROADS IS ATTAINABLE, 
DIGESTIBLE, FASHIONABLE, 
ONLY $1.00 PER YEAR. 

Little Clarence — Pa ! 

Mr. Callipers — That will 
do, my son, I do not know 
how much of a snake is body 
and how much tail, nor why 
Wednesday does not come on 
Saturday, nor anything of the 
kind. You will save us both 
considerable trouble if you go 
to bed right away. 

Clarence — I wasn't going to 
ask any questions, pa. I was 
only wondering why almost 
everything worth having in 
this world is either unattain- 
able, indigestible, unfashion- 
able, or too expensive ? — 
lVester?i Rural. 



Whene'er I take my walks abroad, 
How many poor I see ! 
And as I do not speak to them 
They do not speak to me. 

— J-iCK Seward. 



THE GOOD ONES DON'T NEED 
SAVING. 

" My task in life," said the 
pastor, complacently, "con- 
sists in saving young men." 
"Ah!" replied the maiden, 
"save a good one for me." — 
Life. 



GOOD ROADS HAS CASH IN 

ADVANCE. 
How dear to our heart is 

Cash on subscription, 
When the generous subscriber 

Presents it to view ; 
But the man who don't pay — 

We refrain from description ; 
For, perhaps, gentle reader, 

That man might be you. 

— Exchange. 

POSITIVE EVIDENCE. 

"Johnny," said the minis- 
ter, ' ' I hope your father lives 
in the fear of the I^ord." 

"I guess he does, sir. He 
never goes out on Sunday 
without he takes his gun." 



THE OLD BARBER SHOP STORY 
IN A NEW DRESS. 

" I like this hat," said Isabel. 

" It makes my face look long and well. 
But when dear father saw the bill 
It made his face look longer still. 

—Judge. \ 



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"I believe in educating the masses on the subject of roads, 
and I fully recognize the good work done by the League of 
American Wheelmen." 



Ex-Governor of Wisconsin. 



GooJZ) Ro^os. 



Vol. 7. riarch, 1895. No. 3. 



GOOD ROADS AS A WEEKLY. 

.^\ T the February meeting of the National Assembly of the 
g]^ League of American "Wheelmen, it was voted to consoli- 
|X date this magazine with the weekly paper heretofore 
J ' published by the League, and to issue both under one 

cover, the new publication to be known as ' ' The 
L. A. W. BUI.1.ETIN AND Good Roads." To this end a con- 
tract has been made for a term of years which provides for the 
publishment of the new paper. 

The office will be in the same building as that now occupied 
by Good Roads, No. 12 Pearl street, Boston, Mass. The first 
number will issue April 4. ';; 

All unexpired subscriptions now on the Good Roads books 
will be filled by the consolidated weekly. 

In making this departure the League has placed itself in a 
position to more extensively pursue its Good Roads work, and 
at the same time greatly increase its membership. 

The L. A. W. Bui^letin and Good Roads will be devoted 
to the general interests of road improvement and the " art and 
pastime of cycling." 

A sincere effort will be made to have its columns readable, 
and of a character which will find general favor with wheelmen 
and road reformers. 

Readable articles on the subject of roads, also interesting 
photographs showing novel views of particularly good or par- 
ticularly bad roads, may be sent as heretofore to No. 12 Pearl 
street, and if acceptable will be used in the new paper. 

Owing to the proposed division of the Good Roads' matter 
into smaller and more frequent instalments, it would seem 
desirable that preference be given to brief articles, interesting 
paragraphs and items of road news. 

" Boil it down "; don't fail to send us the article ; don't fail 
to include in it all the " points," but do all you can to take out 
the chaff, the wheat will look so much the better. 

The printing and control of advertising space in the present 
Good Roads was in the hands of the Wheelman Company of 
this city ; they held a three years' contract, which was made 
with the League about a year ago. 



124 GOOD ROADS AS A WEEKLY. 

We desire to express both officially and personally our 
appreciation of the considerate treatment received at the hands 
of the Wheelman Company. 

During the past year they have furnished us, without 
charge, about fourteen thousand copies of Good Roads in 
excess of the number contracted for, and now when it was 
desirable that the ly. A. W. should publish Good Roads in 
another form, the Wheelman Company waives its claim on the 
remaining two years of the contract and permits us without 
embarrassment to carry out our new plans. 

We have on hand a few copies of each and every number of 
Good Roads from its beginning (January, 1892). We also 
keep on hand bound volumes which may be had as heretofore 
at $1.00 each. 

All mail relating to Good Roads' matters should be 
addressed as formerly to No. 12 Pearl street, Boston. 

This issue is unavoidably late. We hope subscribers will 
be forgiving, and that when they receive the Good Roads 
matter in its new form the change may be acceptable. We 
shall try hard to make it right. 

With this number we say good bye to you as a monthly and 
will ask you to shake hands with us again on April 4th, and 
once a week thereafter. 



A GOOD ROADS' DAY. 

f\ T each future meeting of the National Assembly of the 
f 1 Ivcague of American Wheelmen, it is decided to devote 
}^\, one day to the discussion of the subject of road improve- 
M ment. 

^ The first day of the meeting is set apart for this pur- 

pose and we have reason to hope for good results from that first 
day's work. 

Men of prominence outside the League will be invited to be 
present, particularly those who are interested in the cause of 
road improvement. 

Papers will be read by men who make roads a study ;"dele- 
gates will be expected to report progress on the road work in 
their respective States, and all matters referring to the subject 
of legislation, agitation and practical work will be thoroughly 
discussed. 

Great results are to be expected from the "good roads' day." 




ii-3mimw>ins' 



Within the Crater. 



A TRIP TO KILAUEA, 

THE LARGEST ACTIVE VOLCANO IN THE WORLD. 
BY MRS. J. H. EMERY. 

ONE bright day in May, 1893, found our party snugly 
ensconsed on board the little steamer Kenau, which was 
waiting in the Harbor of Honolulu for its full comple- 
ment of passengers. 

At last we were off, steaming through the intricate 
passages that connect the islands with each other. As we left 
the harbor we looked back upon a scene of exquisite beauty. 
Ivike a dark green emerald in an opaline setting, Oahu arose 
from the sea, whose many tinted waters of green and blue 
deepened into violet, through which the foam-crested billows 
rolled and harmlessly broke upon the protecting coral reef that 
formed the Harbor of Honolulu. Within the harbor dark- 
hued natives stood waist deep in the water, drawing in their 
nets, or in long, narrow boats shooting through the breakers 
beyond the reef to engage in deep sea fishing ; bathers in bright 
costumes revelled in the limpid waters or basked in the sun 
upon the golden sands of Waikiki. Far off in the distance 
white sailed schooners swayed, while high mountains, half 



126 A TRIP TO KILAUEA. 

obscured by. low hanging clouds, formed a dark background to 
the sleepy city of Honolulu lying at their immediate base, 
almost obscured by dense groves of banyan, algeroba, mango, 
cocoanut and feathery palms, with their rich foliage brightened 
by brilliant flowering shrubs and vines. 

Gradually the picture faded and was replaced by the lofty 
heights of Moliki, towering thousands of feet, their precipitous 
sides forming the wall that separates the doomed leper from all 
he holds most dear. 

On we went through the short chopped seas of the channels, 
past the island of Mauie, until Hawaii, the largest island of the 
Sandwich group, appeared ; its dreary, verdureless sides pre- 
senting a scene of desolation only to be found in a volcanic 
country. 

Morning found us still in sight of land. Occasionally a 
great whale or school of porpoises would show themselves, or 
a flying fish would dart like a silver arrow through the air. 

At last the island was rounded, and the arid waste was 
changed to a perfect dream of beauty : high mountains clothed 
from base to summit with tropical verdure rose from the ocean 
into cloud land ; waterfalls springing almost from their very 
tops vaulted hundreds of feet downwards to join the sea ; 
eighteen such cataracts appeared at once ; the mountains were 
deeply cleft by wooded canons into which the vaporous clouds 
floated and filled, until they foamed over the mountain sides in 
soft, nebulous mist. Sometimes the cloud curtain would fall 
and obscure the whole, then rising be held back by a rainbow 
span. 

Darkness, which falls abruptly so near the equator, shut the 
scene away from our regretful eyes, and we retired to wake at 
two in the morning in the Harbor of Hi lo. 

There are but three good harbors off the islands, while many 
of the landings are very dangerous on account of high surf. 
Small boats came out to land us. It is not pleasant to climb 
from a lurching steamer into a rocking skiff. Two strong 
natives grasp one's hands, the ship rolls, the waves heave. 
" Now !" shouts the boatman, and one is swung into the boat, 
thankful that it is not the sea instead, which looks dark and 
angry in the dim starlight, while visions of sharks, with which 
1 the warm waters of the Pacific abound, fill the mind. 

Arriving at the hotel, we found our number augmented by 
an English doctor and wife, an Oregon reporter and the inevi- 
table bride and groom, all bound for Kilauea. Entering stages 
we found that the road, level at first and leading through wide 
stretches of sugar cane, gradually became wilder and more 
mountainous, until leaving pineapple, banana and coffee plan- 
tations, we were in the midst of the forest primeval, where the 
' ' Ohio lehua ' ' mingles its flaming pendants with the wide 



A 7 KIP TO KILAVEA 




Harbor of Honolulu. 



white bells of the " fleura bunda." Palms and tree-ferns 
towered from 40 to 70 feet above the tangle of lesser ferns, wild 
fruits and flowers, forming a perfect labyrinth of tropical vege- 
tation which crowded to the very edge, as if jealous of man's 
invasion into nature's wilds. 

And oh ! how it rained ! The windows of heaven were 
opened and we were soon drenched, with still ten miles to go on 
horseback after leaving the carriage. The end of the wagon 
road was reached at last. A group of forlorn looking guides, 
with forlorner horses bearing wet saddles, awaited our coming. 
Climbing out we discovered one dilapidated old side saddle to 
five women, it being the custom for Hawaiian women to ride 
astride. What was to be done? We ladies discussed the 
question and submitted to the inevitable with the best grace 
possible, all but one, who declared she would not ride upon a 
man's saddle, and was helped on to the side saddle. We drew 
our waterproofs over our ankles as best we could, and 
journeyed on over a stone road that was in process of construc- 
tion by convict labor. We were obliged to exercise due care 
not to step off from the crushed rock forming the road bed into 
the deep mud that had replaced the verdure, so we were com- 
pelled to ride single file. 

Suddenly the procession came to a halt. " What's the mat- 
ter? " Only the pack mule rolling in the mud with our valises. 



128 A TRIP TO KILAUEA. 

A second halt. " What now? " The lady on the side saddle 
had fallen from her horse ; fortunately, owing to the soft mud, 
her injuries were slight. A change of saddles was effected and 
the cavalcade moved on. 

The rain fell in sheets, it trickled down our necks and into 
our ears, and filled our mouths if we attempted to speak. At 
length Fern Trail was reached. What magic in that name to 
conjure up romantic thoughts of those isles where the mango 
apples grow, where the red " Ee " and the yellow " Oo " flit, 
sucking sweets from honey laden flowers. Oh ! the awful 
reality of a broken corduroy road, formed from trunks of the 
spongy tree-fern half fallen into decay, with bottomless mud on 
either side. We weary females, satiated with ferns, limply 
held on to the saddle horn, while a convict in parti-colored garb 
of blue and brown, detailed from the chain gang, each led a 
horse to keep it from stumbling and breaking our necks. 
Gradually, as we ascended, the road became rocky and firm. 
The rain had ceased, or rather we had climbed above the 
region of perpetual showers. Within a mile of our destination 
we were met by a carriage. The air at this altitude was clear 
and delightful, and double pink roses lined the road. The 
Volcano House smiled from its setting of heliotrope and callas,. 
luxuriantly blooming in spite of close proximity to sulphur 
banks from which clouds of hot vapor were thrown into the air. 

After a late dinner, dried and rested, we again mounted our 
horses to make the descent into the crater, which yawned, a 
mighty abyss, at our very feet. We were now four thousand 
feet up the Mauna Loa mountain. Into the mountain's side 
the crater drops 750 feet, as if seeking to hide in the very centre 
of the earth. The crater is seven and a half miles in circum- 
ference, with an extreme width of about two miles. A road 
has been made across the cold lava to within a little more than 
a quarter of a mile of the open lake of fire. This road gives a 
sense of security, for although the whole crater's bed may be 
overflowed with molten lava, or even drop away without warn- 
ing, while at each hard earthquake great crevices often open, 
its action seeming to be governed by no fixed laws, it is still 
considered safe for tourists to venture in. 

Down the precipitous zigzag path we climbed, single file, 
into the gathering darkness. Guides, carrying poles and lan- 
terns, walked between every two or three of the party ; occa- 
sionally one would call out, ' ' Keep single file ; some one will 
be hurt." At last we had traversed the crater's bed as far as 
the horses were permitted to go. The lava over which we 
passed lay in corrugated waves or billows as black as obsidian, 
or was broken into cave-like masses by monster upheavals ; 
from the hollow domes of these caverns hung long drops of 
lava. Here and there the jetty blackness of the formation was 



A TRIP TO KI LAURA. 



129 





A Volcano Road. 



relieved by liigli lights of Indian red, purplish gray and white, 
with dashes of 3^ellow, the latter from sulphur incrustations ; 
everything remaining just as it had cooled from the last 
eruption. 

Walking a short distance, we came to the grass hut situated 
on the brink of a second drop in the crater. Only a few years 
since, the whole bed of the crater was on a level, clear up to 
the fiery lake, but one night, after a party of tourists had 
returned from the volcano, the whole mountain was shaken by 
a terrible earthquake and part of the bed broke away and sunk 
to the depth of nine hundred feet, literally swallowed by the 
volcano. It has now risen to within three hundred feet of the 
original level. 

Carefully climbing down over the broken lava blocks that 
threatened to fall at a careless step, starting at every hot blast 
that came from the wide crevices that led to the nether world, 
we reached the second level of the crater's bed. This must^, be 
traversed before arriving at the molten sea, which looked to our 
excited imaginations like the infernal regions themselves. 

No description of an orthodox Hades with its fire and brim- 
stone could half equal this sight. Every moment the heat 
grew more and more intense. Three days previously there had 
been a lava flow, and the intervening space vv^as now cracked 
and checked like the ice of a river when it is breaking up in 
the spring time. Hot poisonous gases puffed up from the 



I30 A TRIP TO KILAUEA. 

crevices, the thin lava from the fresh overflow broke and 
crumbled like bubbles under our feet, and our fears were not 
allayed by being informed that sometimes the lava blocks, 
bordered with red heat, were seen to careen and disappear. 
We could smell our shoe sole's scorching as we walked. 

The guides would try the strength and thickness of the lava 
with their poles, and caution 'us to step lightly upon the thin 
brittle surface. 

At length we were on the brink of the lake of fire, and 
lying before us and some twent}^ feet beneath us were Nature's 
most stupendous smelting works, in whose innermost depths all 
the crude elements of which the earth was formed, are crushed 
and ground, and melted, and then vomited out to form new 
islands, which in their turn may be re-ingulfed and disappear, 
destroyed by the fiery force that is ever up-building and again 
tearing down. 

Above the molten sea hung a luminous pillar of cloud, 
throwiilg a rosy glow of reflected light 'over the whole island. 
Ten thousand feet above loomed Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, 
while away in the distance the ever restless sea thundered 
against the coral reef. To the left arose dense volumes of 
sulphurous gases, entirel}^ obscuring the view from that quarter 
and rendering dangerous a near approach — and all the time 
the molten sea surged and swayed, and surged and broke into 
sullen waves that, gathering force, dashed in fiery billows 
against the lava shore, or sprang high in torrents of brilliant 
spray. Here and there a geyser of molten fluid would shoot 
upward twenty feet or more, backward falling in red hot drops. 
Sometimes ten or fifteen such fountains could be seen at once. 
Then, as if resting, the whole lake would grow still and gray, 
only to lash itself to renewed fury, opening a hundred vents at 
once that tore themselves asunder, madly engulfing each other, 
until the whole sea again became an angry, surging, brilliant 
molten mass. 

I was never so awfully frightened, in the true sense of the 
word, in my life. Neither a Dante nor a Dore could even 
faintly portray this fire incarnate, this force unknowable; yet, 
even in my terror, through the muffled roar of the fiery surf 
that surged and beat upon the shore, I seemed to hear a voice 
saying, " Be still and know that. I am God," and I no longer 
wondered that the Hawaiians believed the volcano to be the 
abode of their Goddess Pele, nor that they reverently made 
their pilgrimages to worship at her shrine. 




David S. Olivkr. 



THE ROAD QUESTION IN OHIO. 

by'; DAVID S. OLIVER, 

Secretary of the Ohio State Road Commission. 

^\ N agitation for good roads 
IJ has been prevailing in 
|f the State of Ohio, as 
J well as in other parts of 

our country. As the 
result of a recommendation 
made by Governor McKinley in 
a message to the Legislature, a 
joint resolution was passed by 
the Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives on February 28, 
1893. By this resolution the 
Governor was authorized to ap- 
point a commission consisting 
of four suitable citizens, two 
from each of the principal polit- 
ical parties. The members 
selected to serve on the com- 
mission were Honorable Martin Dodge, of the city of Cleveland, 
a lawyer by profession, and, at the time, a member of the 
Legislature ; James R. Dunlap, of Hardin County, and D. W. 
Sprague, of Geauga County, both farmers by occupation, and 
the writer, an attorney-at-law in Cincinnati, who was chosen as 
the representative of the League of American Wheelmen. 

Soon after its appointment the commission met at Columbus, 
the capital of the State, and organized by selecting Hon. Mar- 
tin Dodge as president, and the writer as secretar5^ The sum 
'of $800 was appropriated by the Legislature to pay the expenses 
of the commission. The most essential work at the time was 
thought to be the gathering of information in regard to our 
country roads. For this purpose, a series of questions were 
printed and sent to the County Commissioners of each county 
in the State. The questions referred to were as follows : 

1 . Which kind of roads are most common in j^our county, 
macadam, dirt or gravel ? 

2. What materials for making good roads are found in 
your neighborhood ? 

3. What is the cost per mile for constructing a pike in j^our 
county ? 

4. What is the number of miles of macadamized roads in 
your county ? 

5. What is the amount of mone)^ raised: per year by taxa- 



132 ROAD QUESTION IN OHIO. 

tion, or in other ways, for the improvement and preservation of 
roads in your county ? 

6. Is there any general interest taken by the people of 
your county in the subject of good roads ? 

7. What changes would you suggest in the laws of Ohio as 
tending to improve the condition of the public highways ? 

8. Is there any feasible method by which convict labor 
could be used for the improvement of public highways ? 

9. . Please give a list of names of persons in your county 
who are interested in the subject of good roads, with whom the 
Ohio Road Commission might profitably enter into correspond- 
ence. 

10. What is the average cost per ton per mile for moving 
freight over your roads with horses ? Including dirt, gravel, 
stone and macadam roads. 

11. Has the construction of pike roads in your county 
increased the value of adjoining farms? If so, how much per 
acre ? 

The commission also entered into correspondence with engi- 
neers and other persons supposed to be possessed of special 
knowledge on the subject of good roads. It also visited 
various portions of the State, inspecting roads and road mate- 
rial, and striving by personal interviews to elicit the opinions of 
farmers and others having a direct interest in the subject. 
There was a huge mass of- correspondence which it became my 
duty to read and systematize for the report afterwards prepared 
and printed by the commission. In an article of the length 
desired by your magazine I can only refer to a few of the results 
of our labor. 

The problem with which we were brought face to face at the 
outset of our labors was this : If good roads are desirable, 
why are they not built ? Men in this age of the world are 
usually alive to their financial interests, and, ordinarily, do not 
need to be urged to enter upon a course of conduct that 
promises to be to their material advantage. From the statistics 
we gathered we were able to answer this question, at least in 
part. We found that there were about 80,000 miles of country 
highways in our State. We further ascertained that the cost 
of constructing a good macadam pike of ordinary width and 
depth varied from $3000 to $9000 per mile. Taking the average 
cost per mile as low as $5000, it would cost the sum of 
$400,000,000 to improve all the roads in the State. These 
figures were of such alarming proportions as to make us doubt 
whether the highways of Ohio would be brought to a great 
degree of excellence within a very short time. This naturally 
led to the discussion as to which political unit should undertake 
this work : the Nation, the State, the County, the Township, or 
the cities and villages. 



ROAD QUESTION IN OHIO. 133 

The idea that the United States should in any manner con- 
tribute towards the building of roads in Ohio was at once dis- 
missed from our minds. We were unanimously of the opinion 
that such work formed no part of the functions of the general 
government. We were also clearly of the opinion that the 
State should not undertake to improve the highways, and that it 
should not contribute any part of the cost of such improvement. 
Any money raised by the State, b}^ taxation at large, would be 
simply taking money from one community to spend it for the 
advantage of another, and unless this was kept up until every 
part of the State had received its due proportion, the parts 
slighted would have been treated unjustly. Even if the State 
should continue road building until all the different parts had 
been provided with good roads, the net result would have been 
that each community ultimately would have paid for its own 
roads, through the circuitous method of State intervention. 

Another element of injustice which would be brought about 
by State action was presented for our consideration. In some 
parts of the State of Ohio the counties and townships, at their 
own expense, have built as fine roads as there are in any State 
in the Union. They have voluntarily taxed themselves in the 
past and have excellent highways. To compel them to submit 
to a second imposition of taxes, the money raised thereby being 
spent on other parts of the State, was, in our estimation, mani- 
festly unjust. It simply amounted to punishing them for their 
enterprise, and rewarding those communities who, through 
indifference, had neglected to provide themselves with good 
roads. 

We found that the materials for making good roads were 
very unequally distributed over the State, in some places being 
abundant and in others absolutely lacking. In the latter case, 
the cost of transporting the material would be so enormous as 
-to render the idea not feasible. 

We then considered the subject from another point of view. 
We found that for a great many years the tendency of the pop- 
ulation in our State had been to collect in the larger villages 
and cities. These larger villages and cities, in every instance, 
had railroad communication with the outside world. It was 
therefore evident to our minds that there was no necessity for 
building highways running from one part of the State to 
another to accommodate through traffic. Our inquiries led us 
to believe that the average haul on a wagon road did not exceed 
ten miles in length. The principal benefit of highways is to 
enable farmers to reach the nearest town or railway station. 
The logical conclusion, therefore, was that the improvement of 
the highways should begin at the cities and villages, and branch 
out into the surrounding country. This process of reasoning 
led us to assert that the county authorities were the proper ones 



134 ROAD QUESTION IN OHIO. 

to look after the improvement of the country roads, and that 
the cost of constructing and maintaining highways should be 
borne by those living on or near them. 

On the question of additional legislation, we adopted a very 
conservative course. We found that under existing legislation 
good roads had been built, and were being built, and that the 
obstacle to the further improvement of our highways was not 
due to any lack of statutes. On this account we declined to 
recommend any laws for enactment by the lyCgislature. 

The only distinctively novel view advanced by our commis- 
sion was in regard to the part that electric railways seem 
destined to play in the future discussion of highway improve- 
ment. At the time our commission was sitting, many charters 
had been obtained to construct electric lines between cities and 
villages more or less remote. It was pointed out that these 
lines could be carriers of freight as well as of passengers, and 
it seemed extremely probable that future development along 
this line would still further abridge the necessity for building 
expensive country roads. The cost of carriage over a pike or 
a dirt road by horse power is enormous as compared with the 
cost over a railway, either steam or electric. The locomotive 
has rendered obsolete the use of horses and wagons for long 
hauls, and it seems likely that the extensive building of electric 
railways may do away with their use for short hauls. Standing 
as we do upon the confines of the development of this new 
agent in transportation, it seeemed the part of wisdom to dis- 
courage a large expenditure of money in building pikes that in 
a few years might be superseded. 

The question of electric railways caused a division among 
the members of the commission. Mr. Dodge and Mr. Sprague 
made a minority report in which they recommended the con- 
struction of electric railways by the public authorities through 
taxation. Mr. Dunlap and I were unwilling to accede to such a 
socialistic proposal. We were all unanimous, however, in the 
opinion that the development of the electric railway, whether 
built by private or public means, would have a tendency to 
reduce the necessity for ordinary highways, and that it would be 
folly to expend large sums of money in procuring a means of 
transportation that might soon be out of date. 

^ Upon one other point we were also unanimous, and that was 
that the issuing of bonds, extending over a long period of time, 
to raise funds for building roads, was a course not meriting 
approval. The increase of the local indebtedness of our 
counties, cities and townships has already gone far enough, and 
should be opposed rather than encouraged. We also were 
hostile to any scheme by which the number of public ofiicials 
would be increased. We saw no good to be accomplished by a 
permanent commission, nor by the State having a department 



ROAD QUESTION IN OHIO. 135 

or bureau to furnish information in regard to road building, or 
the location of road materials. Competent engineers now 
know how to build good roads, and no State official could add 
to their knowledge on this subject. This knowledge, moreover, 
has already been published in books and treatises on the subject, 
and it would do no good for the State to be at the expense of 
republishing it. 

In conclusion, I would state that my labors on the commis- 
sion brought me to the conclusion that there is a great deal of 
misdirected energy in regard to the improvement of our country 
roads. The principal point aimed at by most agitators seems 
to be the passage of additional legislation. A new law by a 
State is hailed as an evidence of progress in the effort to obtain 
good roads. This, to me, seems a mistake. There is no reason 
why the State of Ohio should have any additional road legisla- 
tion. So far as my observation has gone, additional legislation 
in road matters always takes the form of trying to make some 
other person pay for some benefit to yourself. What is needed, 
in m^^ judgment, is a more thorough agitation of the advan- 
tages to be derived from good roads among the different classes 
in the community. The example of my own city of Cincinnati 
may be cited in proof of this. Several years ago a wide spread 
public interest was aroused in the improvement of our streets. 
Cobble stones were the principal material in use at that time, 
but a demand arose for the use of granite blocks, asphalt, 
bricks and other modern material. As a consequence, we now 
have as fine streets in Cincinnati as any city in the Union. We 
have miles upon miles of granite and asphalt streets, and we are 
now paving even our alleys with brick. I am, therefore, led to 
believe that whenever in any community, you arouse a wide 
spread desire for improved highways, there will be little difii- 
culty in procuring whatever legislation is necessary. On the 
other hand, I am equally clear that you may legislate until 
doomsday and, with no general sentiment in its favor, the 
improvement of highways will never take place. 



YES, OR AGAINST LIGHTNING 

ROD AGENTS. 

The Good Roads League might show 
its devotion to the farmers by starting a 
campaign of extermination against the 
Russian thistle. — Mihvaukee Sentinel 



IIvIvINOIS COUNTRY ROADS. 

BY A. G. WOODBURY, OF DANVIIvIvK. 
(Chairman Road Improvement Committee.) 

SHIS article is prepared and the information it contains 
was gathered with the sincere desire of presenting facts 
about the roads of UHnois. The intelligent cyclist is as 
anxious to get at anything that will shed light on this 
matter as the farmer, banker or any progressive citizen 
of our grand State. 

While he is openly an advocate of "better roads," as it is 
for his self interest to be, he only wishes them built as safety 
and good judgment will advise. 

So far in this movement the person most interested — the 
farmer — seems to be in doubt as to the arranging of any 
feasible plans whereby hard roads can be constructed and not 
tax him beyond endurance. The aim in this paper is to call 
attention to certain things that do exist and thereby make it 
plain that more miles and better miles should be built with the 
money expended. 

Also, that we can safely spend more money on the roads, as 
while in the aggregate we do put out an enorn_ous sum, the 
amount per capita is much smaller than almost any one would 
imagine. The Illinois Division of wheelmen has, along with 
the other users of the roads, been appalled at the vastness of 
this road subject. 

It did not occur to them until this season just past that the 
roads were to be treated as a disease ; and^ whereas, to cure 
any disease it is first in order to diagnose it, it was proposed by 
our Chief Consul, A. A. Billingsley, of Springfield, that we 
obtain the following facts as far as possible : 

' ' The number of miles and kinds of hard roads in each 
county. 

The cost of building and maintaining same. 

The cost of material at most available points in each county. 

The comparative cost of land per acre on hard roads and on 
dirt roads. 

The road and bridge tax for each year of the past ten years. 

The load hauled by a team when road is good. 

The load hauled by a team when road is bad." 

With these questions answered, and placed alongside of the 
population, wealth and acreage of each county, the disease is 
fully outlined, and instead of theorizing as to if this was thus 
and that was thus, figures ai^e made from facts. 

Blanks were prepared and sent to each county in Illinois. 



ILLINOIS COUNTRY ROADS. 137 

The answers always were by residents of the county, the name 
and address being on each blank. 

The first question, calling for number of miles of each kind 
of hard road built in 1893, shows the present status of the 
movement. 

Next, kind of road was asked for. Gravel and macadam 
being all that were reported in any quantity, others were 
dropped. 

Then, actual cost per mile. 

Following, comes the maintenance. 

This column was rarely filled. 

Then comes the eye-opener : Road and bridge tax for the 
past ten years. This does not include district tax. As reported 
by some counties, this would add 20 to 60 per cent, to these 
figures. 

What is the value of land per acre on hard roads as com- 
pared with similar land on dirt roads in the same locality, 
causes a great range of answers, $10 being the average extra 
per acre. Cost of material shows a wide variance. 

Gravel in many counties is 5 cents per yard. It reaches the 
extreme in Randolph County, $1.40 per yard. 

Crushed rock at Joliet is 60 cents a yard, and ranges up- 
wards. 

The load a team can haul when roads are good is never less 
than 2000 pounds in any county, running up to 7000 pounds in 
Du Page County where there are 35 miles of gravel road. 
Eigteen counties report empty wagon a big load when roads 
are bad. Peoria County, with 140 miles of gravel road, can 
haul 2000 pounds, when road is bad and 5000 pounds when it is 
good. 

Kdgar County, with 132 miles of hard roads, hauls 2000 to 
4000 pounds, when roads are good, and 1000 to 2000 pounds 
when bad. Knox, Champaign and Edwards 3000 pounds 
when road is good, in counties all dirt roads, can only haul the 
empty wagon when roads are bad. 

The additions to the statements in the blanks were compiled 
from statistics ; the population of each county from the census 
of 1890, that interesting comparison be made as to tax per each 
inhabitant. To make it further profitable, the acreage and 
wealth of each county is shown, that other valuable comments 
can be formed. 

These latter figures are taken from the report of the Board 
of Equalization of 1891, the year following the census, that the 
figures may harmonize. The combinations that may be derived 
from this putting together of these sums would cover more 
pages than this article. 

Of the 102 counties in the State, information was received 
from 75. From the remaining 27 counties, we are as yet imable 



138 ILLINOIS COUNTRY ROADS. 

to get our blanks filled. With this paper is a list of those 
counties and a blank for each county. We would feel greatly 
favored if some party now present from each county would 
volunteer to get us what answers they can. 

Taking five miles of hard road as a minimum, there are 30 
counties having that number or more miles ; 45 counties report 
not a mile of hard roads. Of the 27 counties not heard from, 
Cook is the only large one not included, and 17 of the 
remainder have 20,000 or less population, leaving only 9 of the 
medium-size counties out of the list. 

. As the counties not reporting, apart from Cook County, 
have only 521,538 population, out of a State population of 
2,634,434, the tabulation represents 80 per cent, of the country 
road population of the State. 

The 30 hard road counties show 898 miles of gravel, and 97 
miles of macadam and telford. Total, 995 miles. Now the 
road and bridge tax for ten years in those counties is $9,934,346, 
or, roughly estimating, there is one mile of hard road to show 
for every $10,000 expended. It would be safe to say that one- 
third of the highways reported are not "good roads," which 
would raise these figures to over $15,000 per mile. Not that ii 
costs that much to build a mile, but we have spent that much 
money in ten years and have only these few miles to show. But 
we are progressing. Many bridges have been erected that will 
not require replacing for years, so accordingly we find 125 miles 
of hard roads were constructed in these counties in 1893. 

It took all the previous years running back to the time the 
National Pike entered the State to make seven-eighths of all our 
hard road, while one year builds one-eighth. 

The building of 1893 was done by 13 counties, showing that 
in 80 per cent, of the counties nothing is doing towards build- 
ing permanent roads. I^aSalle County alone in 1893 built 35 
miles, one -fourth of all in this State in that year, spending 
$2500 tax to get one mile of hard road, while fully 60 counties 
spent over a million dollars and report not a mile. 

Sangamon County, having three-fourths as many people, 
seven- eighths the 'wealth, and nearly 25 per cent, the acreage 
of La Salle County, collected $50,000 in 1893 and got no per- 
manent roads. 

Three counties only report over 100 miles of hard road and 
5 more, or 8 in all, have 50 miles or over. It is very evident 
the dirt road is still with us. 

Owing to the irregular manner in which our present road 
work is conducted, there is great difficulty in getting the 
expense per mile of building gravel roads. . Three counties say 
over $1000 per mile, and eight say $1000 and less. 

It appears that good gravel roads can be built for $1500 per 
mile. Comparing the total tax of 1884 with that of ten years 



ILLINOIS COUNTRY ROADS. 139 

later, 1S93, in hard road counties an increase of nearly 20 per 
cent, is found. In dirt road counties it is only 5 per cent, 
increase. Taking it by counties, 21 hard roads show increase 
and 7 the same tax or decrease, whereas 16 dirt road counties 
show slight increase and 12 decrease. In other words, the way 
to make money is to spend it. 

The counties making hard roads are progressive, and the 
good roads aid them to be so, yet in the ten years the dirt road 
counties manage to spend $6,696,848, or some little over two- 
thirds as much as the hard road counties. The sum of tax in 
the hard and dirt road counties reported is $16,631,194. Taking 
the wealth, population and acreage of the counties not reported, 
which statistics were procured from the Board of Equalization, 
1891, we judge the amount of road and bridge tax for the State 
to be $20,176,403. To this add the district tax, say 20 per cent, 
more, and we have a grand total of $24,211,683 for the 10 year 
tax ending 1893. 

As to the 65 previous 3^ears since the State entered the 
Union, millions have been spent, probably twice as much as in 
the past decade. It would be safe to say that $75,000,000 have 
gone into and on the roads of Illinois. 

From the total of all these figures, the following interesting 
comparisons are gathered : 

During the ten years the hard road counties collected $8.86 
tax for each inhabitant. Only 87 cents per year. Are not you 
astonished at the smallness of the sum ? In the dirt road 
counties they abstracted three fourths as much from each 
person, viz., $6.74 for the ten years. 

In hard road counties is found an average tax of 84 cents for 
each acre for 10 years. Just think of it ! The munificent sum 
of 8 and 4-10 cents per acre ! And yet our reports show that 
hard roads increase the value of land $10 per acre. It is worse 
yet in the other group. Simply 46 cents per acre in all of those 
45 counties is the amount of tax in the past ten years. Do you 
doubt it? Well, how many acres in Illinois? Thirty-four 
million. Now 7 cents a year for 10 years: 70 cents. Multiply 
this by the total acres and the result, $25,800,000 approximates 
the total of the entire tax for ten years. 

All of our figures have until this time been from facts. To 
digress a step, let us figure what a tax of $10 an acre would do 
towards road building. It would yield us in this State 
$34,000,000. At $2,000 per mile t .is would build 17,000 miles 
or near 170 miles of good hard road in every county in this 
State. By issuing 15 year bonds this could be paid off with 
the same tax we now raise each year. 

Of course no sane man anticipates any such gigantic attempt 
now, but startling figures are necessary to a proper realization 
of the case. Here is the farm and garden spot of the world, 



I40 ILLINOIS COUNTRY ROADS. 

and yet for five months in the year we cannot haul our products 
to market. 

How do the figures show as to the individual ? In hard 
road countries his average wealth is $225, while in dirt road 
counties $190 will buy his belongings. The hard road person 
has only 10.5 acres to the dirt road parties 14.6, but the land of 
the former is worth $21.28 per acre and the latter only $12.97. 

It is very evident that even if you should claim that the 
hard roads were not the cause of this startling difference of 
$8.31 per acre in the value of the land, you must admit that 
they have not injured the property. 

One more comparison. In no more striking way can the 
weakness of the dirt road cause be shown than by stating that 
in ten years they assessed $3.55 for each $100 valuation, while 
the hard road counties only go $3.94. That is where one raises 
35 1-2 on the $100, the other gets 39 1-2 on an average for each 
year. 

In conclusion let us say that we anticipate publishing our 
information in full with maps and tables. We realize that it is 
not complete, and tha^ errors may have crept in. We would be 
glad to correspond with anyone either to learn or give informa- 
tion. 



GENERAL WIDE TIRE EAWS ARE BEST. 

1-NlVERSIDE COUNTY has just adopted a wide-tire ordi- 
Iimt nance to prevent the destruction of new roads the county 
Y \ will build. That is well ; but we fear it will be ineffec- 
\ tive until there is a general law on the subject. Placer 
has a wide-tire ordinance also, but it is sleeping, because 
wagons of narrow tires belonging in adjoining counties roll into 
Placer and cut up the roads the wide tires make, hence the 
Placerites do not feel it to be just to enforce a law upon their 
own which the stranger may violate with impunity. So it will 
be in Riverside. There is a wide-tire bill before the Legis- 
lature, and it has a favorable committee report. But the bill 
simply gives the supervisors power to pass ordinances on the 
subject. The bill may as well pass as an educational measure ; 
were it obligatory, however, there would be great virtue in it. 
It is possible that under it some counties may be encouraged to 
adopt the ordinance towards wTiich the bill looks ; but a general 
law, to take effect two years hence, is what the late Road Con- 
vention advised, and it knew what is needed in this matter. — 
Sacramento {Cal ) Record Uriion. 



A HAWAIIAN SKETCH. 

BY MRS. J. H. EMERY. 

THE waning interest in the Sandwich Islands seems to have 
been reawaked by the recent abortive attempts to over- 
throw the new Republic ; an attempt not at all unnatural 
on the part of the natives, as long as their deposed queen 
remained upon Hawaiian shores. 
The sight of a woman in distress, no matter how well 
deserved her punishment may be, invariably appeals to the 
sympathetic American heart; so, plain I^ydia Dominus, last of 
the Hawaiian monarchs, awaiting her trial and sentence for 
treason against the new government, touches a responsive chord 
never felt for Liluokalani, the arrogant Queen of the Sandwich 
Islands. 

Our popular newspaper cartoons have so fully impressed 
upon a reading public that the Ex-Queen is a fat negress, 
speaking African dialect, that it is difficult to eradicate so 
erroneous an idea ; in appearance she is a voluptuously built 
woman, rather darker than the average native, though it is said 
that she prefers her pictures to show a lighter tint. 

She is possessed of considerable dignity and presence, her 
voice in ordinary conversation is smooth, soft and persuasive, 
but without the ring of sincerity. 

Educated at the Royal School for Chiefs by the old mission- 
ary teachers, and thrown into companionship with them, much 
was hoped from her rule, but I have been told by old missionary 
teachers that even in girlhood she very early evinced her 
untrustworthiness, which was undoubtedly increased in later 
life by the influence of a profligate husband. 

- Perhaps when we remember her heredit5^ her mother being 
little more than an abandoned woman, and how, recently, the 
nation has emerged from heathenism, too much has been 
expected of the dusky Queen. 

Shortly before the revolution, which resulted in the over- 
throw of the monarchy, I was presented to the Queen at a 
ladies' missionary board meeting, held at the Central Union 
Church (the same church that was to have been blown up with 
dynamite by Cranston and Muller during the late uprising); 
she most graciously extended her hand and conversed for some 
moments in an amiable manner, though with a slight trace of 
hauteur. The carriage of her head and contour of her face 
forcibly reminded me of one of the old Hawaiian wooden gods 
that I had seen in the Bernice Pauaha Bishop Museum, where 
it had been placed after being rescued from the mud and water 
of an old Taro patch. 



142 



A HA W All AN SKETCH. 





■ " T- ■i .. f ^^tl 




Tnii Royal Mausoli.i m. 



No doubt a mind reader might have been amused at the 
jealousy and bitter hatred felt by the smooth-spoken sovereign 
for the white European, who, claiming no royalty, still felt 
proudly superior both in birth and blood. 

The Queen was becomingly arraj^ed in a heavily jetted black 
satin "holoku," a black mantle and little bonnet; the "holoku" 
is the national dress of the Hawaiian women, being a simple 
" Mother Hubbard," and having its origin, we are told, in our 
American fashions of 1819, which called for a very deep yoke, 
short waist, and a belt almost under the armpits. 

The American missionaries of that date found it a very 
diflficult task to array their dusk}^ converts on account of their 
huge forms, the Hawaiian idea of feminine beauty being fat ; 
belts were out of the question, so a short " Mother Hubbard" 
was resorted to, which so pleased the natives that they ex- 
claimed, "holo-ku," which means "we can run in them." 
Both the name and the garment were adopted. 

Iviluokalani not only speaks English fluently, but is devoted 
to music and poetry, composing both herself. At the dedica- 
tion of the Central Union Church, just before the revolution, a 
poem, written and set to music by a young artist of Oahu Col- 
lege, was used in the dedicatory service ; the Queen was so 
pleased with the music and sentiment that she sent for the 
author, complimented him highly, presented him with several 



A HAWAIIAN SKETCH. 



143 




Volcano House, Hawaii. 



sheets of music of her own composition and bearing her auto- 
graph, and as a still farther mark of her favor, permitted him, 
accompanied by a few friends, to visit the royal mausoleum 
where repose the bones of the " Kamehamchas," a privilege 
seldom granted, as admittance is " tabu " or forbidden. 
fsN The mausoleum is located at the mouth of the Nuuanu 
Valley ; in 1891 King Kalakaua was there entombed with great 
pomp and ceremony. 

The ancient Hawaiian sepulchres, though very different, 
are no less interesting than this more modern tomb. Some six 
miles from Honolulu, between Diamond Head and Cocoa Head, 
both being extinct volcanoes forming lofty promontories that 
extend far into the ocean, past two fresh water streams flowing 
into the sea, and whose beds have been changed and forced 
nearer together by lava flows, is the beautiful vallej^ of "Niu," 
overlooked by spurs of lava formed mountains. These lava 
spurs are destitute of verdure, excepting here and there where 
a giant prickly pear, or omnipresent lantana, find a footing. 
High up among these cliffs, in almost inaccessible places, where 
only an eagle could make its home, are to be found these burial 
places. ♦ 

Nature has assisted in building these sepulchres by forming ^ 
while the lava was hot, what are known as " lava pipes." In 
these pipes or caves the ancient Hawaiians laid awa}^ their 
dead, jealously guarding them from human eye. 



144 A HA W All AN SKETCH. 

It is almost incredible that, with their primitive means, they 
were enabled to perform such work. 

Climbing with difficulty up the face of the cliff for several 
hundred feet, we came to a cave some twelve by fifteen feet in 
size and perhaps six feet high ; what a ghastly sight met our 
astonished gaze. It was "Golgotha," indeed, " the place of a 
skull." Bones, bones, skulls, skulls; with grinning teeth and 
eyeless sockets ; bundles and bundles of bones, wrapped in 
"tapa," or native bark cloth, and packed into native canoes, 
hollowed from hard wood trees and supplied with close-fitting 
covers. Together with the bones were many articles of savage 
treasure, among them was a stove-pipe hat woven in native 
braid, of a fashion of by-gone days ; the ribs of an old umbrella, 
a piece of red flannel and some whale tooth beads, all in a 
perfect state of preservation. 

The natives became very indignant at any desecration of 
these tombs that honeycomb the cliffs for miles around. 

We visited a second tomb at a still greater elevation, but 
found little but dust to reward us. The descent was even more 
difficult than the ascent, climbing around narrow ledges, down 
steep declivities, where a false step threatened instant destruc- 
tion, we at last reached level ground feeling well repaid for our 
labors, and more than ever impressed with the fact that the 
indolent Hawaiians are the most paradoxical people upon the 
face of the earth. 



EDUCATE THE FARMERS. 

I I ON. THOMAS M. BLACKSTOCK, of Sheboygan, who 

^^ was elected president of Good Roads lycague, organized 

I I a short time ago in Milwaukee, is opposed to the adop- 

I tion of radical legislation on the subject of roads. He 

holds, and very properly, that the farmers, who have 

most of the road taxes to pay and are more directly interested 

than any other class in the road question, should be consulted 

first. In a recent interview, among other things he says : 

" We need to first arouse public sentiment on the subject. 
If we properly expend the money we already have, we can do a 
great deal towards making good roads. I am in favor of having 
practical road making taught at the farmers' institute. Farmers 
should know how to make good roads as well as how to breed 
good cattle or sheep or how to prepare the soil for good trops of 
all kinds. 

'" I do not think it will be necessary to issue a dollar's worth 
of bonds to improve the roads of the State. I^et the money be 
spent intelligently, that's all." — Madiso?i (Wis.) Journal. 



ESTIMATES WANTED. 

1 f AhY does not some one state in Good Roads what a 

III good working rock breaker will cost, how much it 

^J^ will do in a day, what the power will cost, and if he 

can give some valid reason why a half dozen farmers 

who are decent, progressive live men, should not 

"buy such a plant, and during the winter crush stone and haul it 

while their mire-hole roads are frozen so they can haul more 

than a bushel at a time ? Their men and teams need exercise 

at this season, and great good can be done toward making stone 

roads before the next break-up of the said swamps. 

What farmers will be the first to start in this sort of thing, 
which they well know will bring their farms miles nearer mar- 
kets for produce, and increase their value largely in actual 
dollars. 

If you have anything to say, Mr. Editor, say it ! 

Stam. 

[Yes, w^e /lave something to say, and it is this : Stampson 
has suggested an eminently practical method of doing good 
work, and we would add that as all farmers understand horses, 
while few are familiar with the steam engine, and as the 
farmers' horses have plenty of leisure during the winter, it 
might be well for them to use horse power instead of steam. 

Good Roads would be glad to print further communications 
on this subject. 

We would like to hear from parties who can give the exact 
cost of such an outfit as Stampson describes, also the difference 
in cost between a suitable steam engine and a horse power. 

Please don't forget to name the number of theoretical horse 
power needed to drive a given crusher, and also the number of 
horses needed to do the same work. — Ed.] 



A NEW PAVING MATERIA^. 

ANEW material, composed of coir fibre, which is obtained 
from the husk of the cocoanut mixed with bitumen, is 
about to be introduced into England for road paving. When 
formed into blocks and laid on a roadway, it forms a surface 
which is said to possess all the advantages of wood and asphalt, 
with none of the objections to those materials. It is wholly 
imper^dous to moisture, gives a sure foothold for horses, is very 
durable, and is, moreover, verj^ cheap, and the old material can 
be utilized again and again for making new blocks. 



WHAT MICHIGAN IS DOING. 

BY FREEMAN LATHROP. 




F 



Freeman L'\.throp. 



OR more than two hundred 
and fifty years the country 
road in America has, for 
the most part, played the 
character of a tramp. 
Wearing the garb of a slattern, 
it has seldom had where to lay 
its head. I^ike the publican of 
old, it has fallen among thieves 
who have robbed it of its just 
dues, in the way of taxes levied 
for its benefit, but which have 
seldom been honestly paid. 
Until recently, the good Samar- 
itan in its behalf has belonged 
to an extinct species, but lately 
his spirit seems to have been 
re-embodied, and he is striving 
to minister to its wants, nurse its energies, and place it in posi- 
tion to fulfil its legitimate functions in the economy of the nation. 
This condition of things is perfectly natural, and the logical 
sequence of pre-existing causes. 

The great, the supreme question that confronts the dweller 
.in the frontier cabin is existence, and anything that does not 
minister directly and immediately to that end must be passed 
by. Food and clothing are the objects directly sought. A 
road does not aid directly in that achievement, other than it 
enables the settler, a portion of the year, to traverse it with a 
more or less crude conveyance to secure the necessities of life. 
It should be remembered that the frontier in America com- 
menced upon the shores of the Atlantic, and the conditions 
pertaining to it have extended thence westward, as the ascend- 
ing smoke from the pioneer's cabin has receded towards the 
setting sun. 

Then, again, this principle rules : that when that machine 
which we call man is once set in motion and run for a time in 
one direction, he seems to wear grooves or ruts, out of which 
or from which it is difficult to turn him. 

These habits, for that is what we generally term them, when 
once fixed, are so obdurate that it is difficult for him to disen- 
gage himself from them, even when they are antagonistic to 
those principles which he is quite willing to accept when not 
applied to the particular case in hand. 



WHAT MICHIGAN IS DOING. 147 

At the very outset the country highway became an object 
of neglect, and has naturally continued to be found in the rear 
ranks of the advancing army of progress. 

These, I believe to be the logical reasons wh}^ multitudes of 
intelligent men are found to-day clinging with tenacity to 
methods of treating the country road that they would not for a 
moment consider touching any matter of personal or individual 
business. 

Placed at the entrance to the Transportation Building at the 
World's Fair, were these words of Macaulay : " Three things 
make a nation powerful and great : a fertile soil, busy work- 
shops and easy transportation for men and goods from place to 
place." 

Michigan has the fertile soil and busy workshops, but the 
easy transportation is limited to her lines of railroad. 

Possessing excellent material in nearly every county and 
township, even, for the construction of good roads, it is a 
lamentable fact that for the most part her country roads are an 
abomination. Her roads are dirt roads. Few of them, outside 
of toll roads are graveled, and where gravel roads are found, 
they exist in detached links, and the work is ineffectually done, 
conforming to no standard or gauge. 

The great difficulty under which Michigan has been labor- 
ing up to date is lack of any system. She has been running 
under that old slip-shod, go-as-you-please law of assessing a 
labor tax in each township, and electing pathmasters to super- 
vise the work. These pathmasters serve for one year. There 
has been no law directing how any road should be built outside 
of toll roads, so that each of the thousand pathmasters has 
followed his own sweet will. 

Comparatively little honest work has been done and most of 
that has been injudiciously applied. How could anything else 
be. expected while working under such a law ? I believe that 
the concensus of opinion among the intelligent farmers will 
sanction the statement that on the average one-third the road 
tax, if paid in money, would accomplish as much as the whole 
applied directly in labor. 

I once saw a picture which I think would furnish a fitting 
cartoon of the average country road under the foregoing 
regime. It represented a homeless feline, lean and lank, sitting 
upon its haunches, wearing a lonesome, forlorn countenance, 
having a discouraged air, its fur pointing in the direction of its 
nose, and under it was written the legend : " Nobody's Cat." 

I believe it is demonstrated that no people and no nation 
has secured permanent and first-class roads for any great extent 
of territory, when relying entirely upon local taxation. The 
farming community must not be asked to build the country 
roads alone. The State must interest itself, and furnish in some 



148 WHA T MICHIGAN IS DOING. 

manner a, portion of the road fund. The country roads are for 
the benefit of the pubHc at large. 

At the present time here in Michigan, the total assessed 
valuation of the State, including the corporate property paying 
specific taxes, is over eighteen hundred millions. Of this 
amount only about six hundred millions pay any tax for the 
benefit of the public highways, which seems to be an injustice. 
And yet, while Michigan has had a farmer governor for over 
six years, we have not elicited from him a word in favor of 
State aid for the public highways. 

The farmers in this State have expended in labor and 
money during the last fifty years one hundred millions, or what 
represents that amount. I have reference now to the taxes 
levied, more than half of which, however, have been frittered 
away for the reason that the labor tax has too often been paid 
by tijne foirjiished rather than labor acHially performed^ and often 
both labor and money have been injudiciously applied because 
there was no rule to work to and no law governing. 

Two years ago our IvCgislature passed a road law which is 
called the county road system. This provided for a general 
county tax, and for the issuing of road bonds under certain con- 
ditions ; also for a Board of Road Commissioners in each county 
who should select the roads to come under the county system 
and have entire jurisdiction of the roads, the work on them and 
the road money. It was optional with each county whether to 
adopt this or not. It required a two-thirds vote of the Board 
of Supervisors to submit it to a vote of the people of the county. 
I believe but three counties in the lower peninsula have adopted 
it. These are Bay, Alpena and Muskegon ; all shore counties. 
A proposition to submit to the people has been defeated twice 
in this county, and, I think, in Wayne, which includes Detroit. 
It was submitted in Saginaw County, but buried deep at the 
polls. If this system were accepted in this county, the city of 
Grand Rapids would have 64 1-2 per cent, of the total tax to 
pay, every dollar of which would be expended in the county, 
and yet it was supported by the city supervisors, but defeated 
by those from the county. 

Mr. Roy Stone has told us what is first necessary to secure 
good roads, but, in my opinion, he does not go back far enough. 
It is no use to lead a horse to water if he won't drink. It is 
useless to preach the true God to a people unless you can make 
them dissatisfied with the idols they are already worshipping. 
While there are notable exceptions, the average farmer with us 
seems to be grown too fast to the old traditions in the matter of 
handling country roads. 

What we seem to need, first, here in Michigan, with refer- 
ence to securing good roads, is some John the Baptist to prepare 
the way, and a St. Paul who shall turn the world upside down 



WHAT MICHIGAN IS DOING. 149 

on this subject. We need a spirit to arise touched by fire from 
off the altar, gifted with a pen dipped in inspiration and a voice 
attuned to the popular ear, who can instill into this generally- 
dry subject the odor of sweet herbs, and infuse into it a mag- 
netism that shall be irresistible, and bring the people to their 
normal sense on this question. 

There are a number of questions pertaining to the county 
highway that I have not touched upon that apply to Michigan 
and every other State, but space is limited. 

WIDE TIRES. 

As to the matter of wide tires for vehicles carrying heavy 
loads, which I am asked to dwell upon, you can see that we 
have hardly reached that stage of progress where that question 
is largely discussed. It is, however, coming forward. The 
tire in use in hauling heavy loads in this vicinity is either three 
inches or three and a half inches. With the advent of really 
good roads, the tire will likely be made four inches. That is 
the opinion of the farmers with progressive ideas. 

The wide tire is not a road maker, but it is a wonderful 
road preserver. There is hardly a place where in hauling 
heavy loads a wide tire will not do as well as a narrow one, and 
generally much better. 

While I have not given a rosy picture of the condition of 
the country roads in Michigan, let not the reader think we are 
in despair. In fact, the glimmerings of the morning twilight of 
a better day are already visible ; and although the county road 
with us, after having belonged to the family of States for more 
than half a century, must still be considered in the caterpillar 
age, not yet having reached the chrysalis state, and many leagues 
removed from the full butterfly development, yet we have suc- 
ceeded in arousing something like intense agitation of the 
question. There are many bills affecting the road law, before 
our lyCgislature, and it hardly needs the prophetic eye of the 
ancient seer to predict with certainty that the next decade will 
do for Michigan in this matter more than the half century that 
has past. 



THIS EDITOR MUST HAVE BEEN 

BITTEN. 

IF you pick up a starving dog and 
make him prosperous, he will not bite you. 
This is the principal difference between a 
dog and a man. — Ex. 



SOME ECONOMIC PHASES OF GOOD ROADS. 

J. R. COMMONS, 
Of the Indiana Uiiiversitv. 




T 



J. R. Commons. 



^HIS subject involves sev- 
eral questions. The prin- 
cipal ones are these : How 
much is the benefit de- 
rived from good roads ? 
Who gets the benefit ? How 
much does it cost ? Who pays 
for it ? Who ought to pay for 
it? 

General Stone, of the Federal 
Department of Agriculture, has 
found three independent esti- 
mates which place the yearly 
loss to farmers in the United 
States from bad roads at about 
$600,000,000, equivalent to %\ 
an acre annually. Capitalized 
at five per cent., this amount, if 
saved, would increase the value of farm land $20 an acre, or a 
total increase of $12,000,000,000. As the total value of all 
farms is about $26,000,000,000 this would be an increase of fifty 
per cent, in their value. As the total annual value of farm 
products is only $2,600,000,000, one-fourth of its value is lost 
through bad roads. 

Comparisons have also been made with foreign countries. 
The English horse does twice the work of the American horse, 
the French horse three times the work ; not because they are 
better horses, but because they travel better roads. Mr. Wollen 
estimates the annual cost of maintaining a horse at $100. If 
only one-fourth of the horses in Indiana could be spared, 
instead of one-half or two-thirds as in England or France, the 
annual saving in horse maintenance for this State alone would 
be $30,000,000. Professor Ely holds that poor roads cost the 
farmer $15 per horse. 

These estimates are none too high. The gain from good 
roads when once they are completed will make the most 
cautious statistics seem fabulous. But there are two or three 
special points to be considered. The tremendous fall in prices 
of farm products in recent years is a heavy drawback to road 
improvement. Farm products have fallen in prices even more 
than the roads have benefitted the farmer. Ill 1882, according 
to the reports of the Secretary of Agriculture, the average 
value of the corn product in the United States was $11.94 per 
acre ; in 1893 it was $8.21 per acre, a fall of 31 per cent. Oats 
fell from $11.48 per acre in 1882, to $6.88 per acre in 1893, 40 
per cent.; wheat yielded $12 per acre in 1882, only $6.16 in 



ECONOMICS OF GOOD ROADS. 151 

1893, a fall of nearly 50 per cent. But the cost of production, 
according to the estimates of 25,000 farmers is $11.69 P^i" acre — 
$12.39 in Indiana — nearly double the price received for the 
product. Horses, which in 1882 averaged $61 a head, are only 
$48 in 1894, a fall of 21 per cent, in 13 years. With horses so 
cheap and grain still cheaper to feed them, it is not likely that 
farmers can spend much monej^ in building roads to economize 
horse flesh. 

As a result of this universal fall in products, the values of 
farm lands have fallen correspondingly. Consequently a large 
part of the stone and gravel roads which have been built during 
the last fifteen years, have not served to raise the value of 
abutting farm property, as should be expected from the esti- 
mates I have quoted, but have merely protected it from the 
universal fall of all such property. In many cases even the 
benefitted farm lands have actually fallen in value, notwith- 
standing the advent of the hard road. 

Closely connected with this is pother point to be noted, 
namely, that it takes several years for farmers to realize the 
increased value which good roads bring. In order to take 
advantage of good roads, the farmer must adopt a more inten- 
sive method of cultivation. Must introduce crops for which 
there is a market demand, must invest in more machinery and 
implements. All of this requires time, and meanwhile the 
farmer is compelled to pay his assessments in cash derived from 
the sales of depreciated products. 

To illustrate these two points I have personally examined 
many of the farms along four of the macadam roads running 
out of the city of Bloomington. These roads were completed 
in the years 1884-85 at an average cost of about $2,000 per mile. 
The assessments on farms within the two-mile limit ran from a 
few cents per acre to $2.70 per acre. There was no other pike 
built in the county until 1889, so that if these pikes had any 
appreciable effect on farm values it would appear by comparing 
the townships which were benefitted with those which were not, 
before and after the pikes were built. There were four town- 
ships directly benefitted by the roads, three townships partially 
benefitted, and four not benefitted. Taking first the assessed 
value of farm land ( excluding railroad property and the city 
of Bloomington) and comparing the assessed values in 1882, 
before the pikes were built, with the assessed values in 1888 
when the first succeeding real estate assessment was made, the 
value of farm lands in the benefitted townships, as well as in all 
other townships, showed an actual falling off at the latter date. 
This was true, not only of the townships as a whole, but also 
of individual farms lying on the pikes. It required more than 
three years, therefore, after the roads were completed, for the 
increase of values to show itself in the assessments. 



152 ECONOMICS OF GOOD ROADS. 

In 1 89 1 a new assessment was made under tlie new tax law^ 
which, as every one knows, greatly increased the average valu- 
ation of all property throughout the State. Farm property, 
which under the old law was assessed at 50 to 70 per cent, of 
its true value, was now listed at 80 to 90 per cent. In this 
assessment, six to seven years after the completion of the roads, 
the effects on farm values begin to appear. In the unbenefitted 
townships, the valuation of farm land rose only i per cent, 
above the values in 1882 ; in the three partially benefitted town- 
ships it rose 13 per cent. ; and in the four townships benefitted 
by the roads it rose 20 per cent, above the values of 1882. It 
would seem, therefore, that in about six or seven years after the 
completion of the pikes, the assessed values of farms began to 
show distinctly the effect of good roads. 

If now we estimate the changes in the true values of farm 
property, assuming that the assessed values had been increased 
from about 65 per cent, of the true value to 85 per cent, of the 
true value, an increase of jo per cent, in the rate of assessment 
owing to the operations of the law of 1891, it would follow upon 
a simple calculation that in the unbenefitted townships where 
the assessed values rose i per cent., the true values had fallen 
in the ten years about 25 per cent. ; in the partially benefitted 
townships the fall had been about 15 per cent., and in the bene- 
fitted townships, with a rise in the assessed value of 20 per cent., 
there had been a fall in the true value of about 8 per cent. 
This agrees with answers to inquiries made of farmers along 
the line of the best of the four pikes. A typical farm of no 
acres, lying on the pike three miles from town, for which $65 
an acre was offered and refused in 1880, before the pike was 
built, could now be bought with about the same improvements 
for $60 an acre. At that time it was assessed at $43 an acre, 
being 66 per cent, of its true value ; now it is assessed at $50 an 
acre, i. e., 83 per cent, of its true value. 

So far then as these pikes about Bloomington are concerned, 
they seem fully to sustain my position that good roads in these 
days do not raise the values of farm lands, and so actually 
increase the real economic prosperity of the farmer, but they 
merely protect him, in a measure, from the universal depression 
which has been settling upon his fellow farmers. 

I do not intend, however, to hold that farmers are not bene- 
fitted by good roads. Indeed, they are highly benefitted rela- 
tively if their farm values remain even stationary and do not 
decline, since there is almost no market at all nowadays for farms 
without such roads. What I maintain is this, that farmers under 
the present fall in prices of farm products and farm lands cannot 
afford to bear all the expense of building the county roads, as 
they have done in the past. If we are to have good roads the 
cities must help the farmers. 



ECONOMICS OF GOOD ROADS. 153 

Cities are benefitted as much as farmers, or even more, by 
good roads. While the average assessment of all farm lands in 
Monroe County increased 12 per cent, in 10 years, 20 per cent, 
in those townships benefitted by stone roads, and 26 per cent, 
in one of the townships most highly benefitted, the value of lots 
in the city of Bloomington rose 107 per cent. Even this is not 
a fair comparison, since the best business lots are valued at only 
50 per cent, of their true value, while farm lands are valued at 
80 to go per cent. All over this State, and in every State, city 
lots are jumping up in value while farm lands are tumbling 
down. Various reasons are assigned for this, such as railroads, 
manufactures, protective tariff, concentration of population. 
To these reasons should be added improved country roads. 
The manufacturer and the wholesale merchant here in Indian- 
apolis are benefitted by good roads in every county of the State. 
Their manufactured products are shipped by rail to the towns 
and villages and smaller cities. Three-fourths of their ultimate 
patrons are farmers. The farmer cannot purchase if he cannot 
sell. If, on account of bad roads, he must be content with a 
miserable existence on what he can produce and consume on 
his own farm, and carries only enough products to market to 
pay his taxes, how can he buy anything from the town mer- 
chants ? And if he cannot buy from them, they cannot buy 
from the wholesalers and manufacturers. Thus it is that the 
retailers and small manufacturers in the towns, the wholesalers 
and large manufacturers in the cities should be as much inter- 
ested in paying for good roads all over the State as the farmers. 
Besides this, farm products can be sold much cheaper to the 
residents of cities if the cost. of carriage is reduced. 

Under our present sj^stem of road building, the cities do not 
assist proportionately to the benefits received. Under the two- 
mile law, the property owners of Bloomington paid about 10 per 
cent, of the cost of all the 32 miles of pikes radiating from 
itself, and yet Bloomington has 33 per cent, of the total prop- 
erty, and 20 per cent, of the land values, and should have paid 
20 to 30 per cent, of the cost. The law of 1893 enabling town- 
ships to build roads, and including any city of less than 30,000 
population within the township, is an improvement on the old 
law, and is already adding largely to the good road mileage. 
But it does not go far enough. The law of 1891 in the State of 
New Jersey is the first step towards the system which has given 
Europe its magnificent roads. According to that law, property 
owners who are benefitted are assessed one-tenth of the cost of 
the road, the State pa5'-s one-third and the count}'- the remain- 
der. A bill introduced before the Legislature of New York, 
but not adopted, seems to reach a fair apportionment. One- 
third is to be paid by the State, one-third by the county, and 
one-third by property owners in the benefitted district. 



154 ECONOMICS OF GOOD ROADS. 

Why should the county and State pay two-thirds ? Because^ 
in the first place, under the existing special assessment plan, 
the farmers who build the road pay a double tax. They are 
taxed first for the building of the road. This may be looked 
upon as an investment upon which a return is expected in the 
increased values of their land. But when this expected increase 
takes place, their ordinary assessment is also increased and with 
it their ordinary taxes. At the same time, as farm lands 
increase in value, more extensive improvements and larger 
stocks of personal property are concentrated on these better 
situated lands, which are then also added to the tax list. Thus, 
in the two-fold way of a special tax and an increased ordinary 
tax, the benefitted farmers find that they are compelled to pay a 
larger share of township, county and State taxes. 

For example, in Monroe County the four townships already 
mentioned as benefitted by the stone roads paid, in 1882, 28 per 
cent, of the county's direct taxes (excluding railroad taxes), 
while in 1892 their share had increased to 31 percent. But the 
share of the unbenefitted townships, which was 30 per cent, in 
1882, had fallen to only 23 per cent, in 1892, and the partially 
benefitted townships paid the same proportion, 15 per cent. 

Again, taking the individual farmers in the benefitted dis- 
tricts, who had previously paid their special assessments, I find 
the yearly taxes on their farm lands have been raised 20, 40, 
50, 70, and in one case 104 per cent., through increased valua- 
tions. It was the rise in the valuation of these farms which 
had already paid the special assessment that increased the av.er- 
age valuation of the benefitted townships the 20 per cent, already 
mentioned. Consequently, the farmers who built those pikes 
taxed themselves for a common improvement in order that they 
might pay more taxes. This is the very reason why the county 
and State should take a large share of the initial expense off 
their hands. The rise in value of their farms, and the addi- 
tional improvements and personalty, will compel them anyhow 
to pay a larger share of county and State taxes in return for 
the benefits received. 

In the second place, the county and State should pay two- 
thirds, because only in this way can the cities contribute their 
just share. City lots are rising as a result of road improvement 
(along with other reasons). Bloomington in 1882 paid 27 per 
cent, of the county's direct taxes, and in 1892 she paid 33 per 
cent., an increase due mainly to the disproportionate increase 
in the values of her town lots. Throughout the State the 
larger cities, which are of course absorbing the larger benefits 
of the State's economic progress, would more and more make a 
proper return if they contributed to a county and State tax 
which pays the expense incurred in promoting that progress. 

The objection is made that cities have their own heavy 



ECONOMICS OF GOOD ROADS. 155 

expenses for building and maintaining their streets, to which 
the farmers do not contribute, and, therefore, the farmers should 
not ask them for help in constructing their country roads. The 
answer is that only the main gravel and macadam roads are 
contemplated under the New Jersey and similar laws, which 
might properly be called county or State roads, and that if 
cities have streets to maintain, farmers have township and cross 
roads to maintain, to make connections with the pikes. The 
townships of Indiana tax their property owners 10 to 15 cents 
on the $100 for maintaining their own dirt roads, and an addi- 
tional special tax for new roads, while the city of Indianapolis 
has a tax for the care of its streets, and special assessments for 
new streets. Boston spends 16 cents on the $100 valuation for 
care of streets. The one offsets the other, leaving the great 
thoroughfares connecting the cities and villages as a proper 
charge for all in common. 

Again, the federal government has protected manufactures, 
and fostered those industries which concentrate in cities. From 
helpless infants they have become stalwart adults. The farmer 
has paid the bills. Now agriculture is in a position to need 
protection. The best possible protection is good roads. If we 
wait for the farmer to build the roads, we assign him a burden 
he cannot bear in the present condition of his industry. Good 
roads must precede agriculture, just as protection preceded 
manufactures — then we shall develop our greatest industrj^ so 
that in course of time it will be able, like manufactures, to bear 
increased taxes and thus recompense the State for the outlay in 
its behalf. 

But the federal government cannot undertake this expense. 
It remains for the State governments to do so. Let the federal 
government protect manufactures and commerce, let the State 
governments foster agriculture. How can it be done? The 
-most economical and eflficient aid is found, perhaps, in the 
creation of a State Highway Commission. Massachusetts 
established such a commission in 1892, composed of three mem- 
bers, receiving each $2,000 salary. Their first report, issued 
in 1893, is a practical and valuable document for road builders 
and students of the road question, and especially is it useful for 
local supervisors of Massachusetts. Ohio and Pennsylvania 
have also successful commissions. Indiana has already discov- 
ered the great value of permanent State commissions in other 
fields. Our State Board of Charities and Corrections has done 
more than any other agencj^ in improving the administration of 
poor relief in the township, of jails, penitentiaries and asylums, 
and in supervising the construction of jails and poorhouses. 
The State Board of Tax Commissioners is the first successful 
agency for reaching the property of wealthy corporations. A 
State Highway Commission, composed of experts, giving their 



156 ECONOMICS OF GOOD ROADS. 

entire time to their work, assisting county and township super- 
visors, would do more for road improvement in Indiana than 
any other legal arrangement. 

Next, the State should make appropriations in aid of county 
gravel and macadam roads, like the State aid in New Jersey. 
It might not go so far as to contribute one-third, but it should 
assist liberally. It has been estimated that Indiana spends 
$2,600,000 yearly for roads. One-fourth or one- third of this 
could bring better results if expended by the State instead of 
counties and townships, under the supervision of the State 
Highway Commission. 

But how is the State to get the money ? Taxes are already 
so high that no political party can safely afford to increase 
them. Yet there is one prolific and painless source of State 
revenue as yet overlooked by our law makers. I mean the 
inheritance tax. Neighboring States have such a tax. Ohio 
taxes estates on a progressive scale of one per cent, on a surplus 
above $5,000, and rising to 5 per cent, on estates of $1,000,000 
and over. New York gets $2,000,000 to $4,000,000 a year from 
this tax. If Indiana had a tax like the one in Geneva, Switzer- 
land, it would yield probably $4,000,000 a year, and a tax like 
the one in Ohio would yield fully $1,000,000. The inheritance 
tax is not a tax in the ordinary sense. It does not press upon 
industry. It does not take from a man what he has earned. 
Only a few pay the tax. It comes mainly from the cities, and 
from great estates which could not have been accumulated and 
devised without the fostering care of the State government. 
Such a tax should be devoted to the two great purposes of free 
schools and free roads. These are the two ways in which the 
State can best build up its citizens, especially those in the 
poorer sections. Both expenditures return to the State com- 
pound interest. They make better citizens and better tax- 
payers. 

And so, in conclusion it seems to me from a comparison with 
what other States are doing, that the lines of sharpest attack 
for the advocates of road improvement in Indiana are an inheri- 
tance tax for State aid to county roads, and a highway commis- 
sion to administer it. In this way could the entire State, 
without adding to its present burdens, promote the building of 
the best roads where they are most needed, and thereby relieve 
the farmer in his depressed condition, stimulate agriculture and 
create a market for its manufacturers, merchants and laborers. 




THE CHAMPION DISTRIBUTING CART. 

THE American Road Machine Company, located at Kennett 
Square, Pa., widely known as builders of high class road 
making machinery and tools, have designed and are now 
offering a special form of cart for hauling, dumping and 
spreading broken stone, and which they have styled the 
•" Champion Distributing Cart." 

It is a great improvement over the old-fashioned, ordinary 
dumping cart so long employed in road building operations, 
possessing advantages that cannot fail to commend it to engi- 
neers, contractors, road, street and park commissioners and 
others interested in good road and street work. 

By its use broken stone may be handled much more quickly 
and at considerably less expense than has heretofore been 
possible — and in a more satisfactory manner. 

The dumping and spreading of broken stone is usually 
■attended with a cloud of fine dust which is blown into neighbor- 
ing residences and settles on furniture, resulting in considerable 
annoyance and damage ; the finest particles of stone and dust 
not blown away will settle at the bottom of the pile, making it 
impossible to spread the stone uniformly, thus defeating one of 
the main principles of stone road construction, viz., the proper 
distribution of the material on all parts of the roadway. 

The ' ' Champion Distributing Cart ' ' overcomes all of these 
obstacles effectually. It is a dump cart mounted upon four 
wheels. The weight is well distributed on both front and rear 
wheels, thus avoiding either upward or downward pressure on 
the team. The tilting of the cart is effected by a crank and 
gear mechanism in connection with a rack and pinion, which 
not only renders easy the tilting of a heavy load, but is also of 
great advantage when it is desired to load the cart with shovels, 



158 CHAMPION DISTRIBUTING CART. 

as the cart can be firmly held in any position from level to com- 
pletely dumped. 

The tail-board is hinged at its upper edge, allowing the lower 
edge to swing outward. Two adjusting chains limit the out- 
ward swing when the cart is used as a spreader. 

Steel wings are attached to either side of the cart at the 
tailboard for the purpose of spreading the stone to the entire 
width of the track of wheels. The stone as it escapes from the 
cart is levelled by means of a steel scraper attached to the 
bottom of the tail-board. 

This scraper is pivoted at the centre and is adjustable at 
either end by means of a horizontal lever on back of tail-board. 
This feature is of great value, as in the construction of stone 
streets it is necessary in many cases to spread thicker in the 
middle of the road than at the sides ; if the scraper was station- 
ary this could not be done, but as it is adjustable it can be 
spread thicker on one side than on the other. This adjustable 
scraper will also be found very useful when it is desired to 
spread but half the width of the cart ; thus, if the road to be 
constructed is twelve feet in width, the smaller size cart will 
spread to a width of five feet, and it will readily be seen that 
after the cart has spread two widths there will be two feet of 
roadway yet to spread, or three feet less than the width of the 
cart ; hy adjusting the scraper and driving one wheel on the 
stone already spread about three feet from the edge, the remain- 
ing two feet can be easily spread. 

The ' ' Champion Distributing Cart ' ' is built in two sizes — 
for two or three horses working abreast. 

The smaller two-horse size has a capacity of i 1-2 yards ; is 
mounted upon 21-2 inch steel rear axle and 5-foot wheels with 
5-inch tread, treed 5 feet. It will spread to a width of 5 feet. 
Front axle 2-inch steel, 3-foot wheels with 3-inch tread ; treed 
to track inside of rear wheels. 

The larger (3-horse) size has a' capacity of 2 1-2 yards; is 
mounted on 3-inch steel rear axle and 5-foot wheels with 6-inch 
tread. Front wheels same as smaller size ; treed to track inside 
of rear wheels. Spreading width, 71-2 feet. Both carts are 
provided with a good foot-lever brake convenient to the driver's 
seat. 

The ' ' Champion Distributing Cart ' ' is built for hard service 
and only the best of materials have been used in its construc- 
tion. White oak is generally employed, the floor of the cart 
and sides being planked with hickory, bolted to place. The 
wheels are "A i " in every particular, the castings are mostly 
of malleable iron and, in short, every part denotes careful and 
consistent construction. 

A very attractive feature of the cart is its all around useful- 
ness. None of the conveniences of the common cart have been 



CHAMPION DISTRIBUTING CART. 159 

sacrificed in the design of the " Champion," and it is the most 
perfect and convenient general purpose cart on the market, and 
can be used for hauling plank, stone, earth, etc., etc. 

The American Road Machine Company are firm believers in 
the efficacy of wide tires on any draft vehicle, and have endeav- 
ored in designing the "Champion Distributing Cart" to com- 
bine the good effects of the roller with that of the spreader, by 
making the tires of more than ordinary width and having the 
front wheels to tree inside of the rear wheels, thus giving a 
rolling space of 16 inches on the two-horse cart and 18 inches 
on the three- horse cart. 

A finely illustrated catalogue of this cart, with fuller descrip- 
tion, prices, etc., may be obtained of the manufacturers upon 
application. 



A GOOD ROADS BII.I,. 

^\ GOOD roads bill introduced in the New York Legisla- 

fl ture is skillfully drawn so as to overcome in a large 

^r\ measure the prejudice of local tax -payers against road 

J building. It provides that the expense of road improve- 

ment be borne one-half by the State, one-fourth by the 

county and one-fourth by the towns along the line of the roads 

that are constructed. The Board of Railway Commissioners is 

put in charge of the road building, a road engineer being 

attached to their service. It is made the duty of the board to 

hold public meetings in different parts of the State in order to 

promote public sentiment in favor of better roads. Roads are 

to be improved on petition of two-thirds of the owners of land 

along which they pass, if the people in the towns through 

which such roads run favor the improvement. In order to start 

the work the bill contains an appropriation of $250,000. 

The system as proposed would seem to be likely to promote 
road building. If good roads are worth having, it is surely a 
wise expenditure of money on the part of the State to encour- 
age their construction. It can well afford to invest a consider- 
able sum each year in this manner. Insomuch as it seems the 
only way of getting the movement for better roads started, the 
New York plan to have the local tax-payer relieved from direct 
payments is a highly practical one. By making the construc- 
tion of improved roads dependent on the expressed wishes of 
property owners a proper limitation is set upon the amount of 
road building, while at the same time it is likely to cause com- 
petition among different communities to get the start of each 
other in this respect. 




Day 


Day 


Day 


L( 


of 


of 


of 




Year. 


Month. 


Week. 

Fr. 


H 


60 


1 




61 


2 


Sa. 




62 


3 


S. 




63 


4 


M. 




64 


5 


Tu. 




65 


6 


W. 




66 


7 


Th. 




67 


8 


Fr. 




68 


9 


Sa. 




69 


10 


S. 




70 


n 


M. 




•71 


12 


Tu. 




•72 


13 


W. 




73 


14 


Th. 




74 


15 


Fr. 




75 


16 


Sa. 




76 


17 


S. 




77 


18 


M. 


I 


78 


19 


Tu. 




79 


20 


W. 




So 


21 


Th. 




Si 


22 


Fr. 




S2 


23 


Sa. 




S3 


24 


8. 




S4 


25 


M. 




S5 


26 


Tu. 




86 


27 


W. 




S7 


28 


Th. 




88 


29 


Fr. 




89 


30 


Sa. 




90 


31 


S. 





Lengthof 
Day. 
M. 



15 
18 
21 
24 
26 
29 
31 

34 

37 
40 

43 
46 

49 
52 
55 
58 
or 

03 
06 
09 
12 

15 
18 
21 
24 
26 
29 
32 
35 
38 
41 



THIRD 



March, 1895 



A MONTH 



Give the cattle an open shed, where 
they can enjoy the sunshine sheltered from 
the cold March winds. This will save 
food, and the milch cows will give more 
milk. The early lambs not only need an 
open shed in which to sun themselves, but 
on cold, stormy days they need a warm 
barn where they can have plenty of room 
and dry bedding ; it is also important to 
have the barn well ventilated. Good 
lambs bring such a price that it pays well 
to take the best care of them. 

Now is a good time to decide what crops 
are to be grown the coming season ; and 
when the decision is made, lose no time in 
buying what seed may be needed. It is 
very poor policy to wait and buy seed but 
a day or two before it is wanted ; the 
chances are that in doing so not as good 
seed will be obtained, and as there is no 
time to test it, a partial or total failure 
may be the result, when, if the seed had 
been procured in time, it might have been 
tested, and a failure prevented. 

See to it that the farm implements are 
all in good order and ready for business 
when spring opens ; make what repairs are 
needed, and give all that need it a good 
coat of paint. This the farmer can do 
himself, and save the money it would cost 
him to hire it done. 



LEAGUE OF AMERICAN WHEELMEN. 

.'..'.. Organized 1880. ."...'. 

A voluntary organization having for its object the systematic 
improvement of the public roads, and the protection of 
wheelmen against unjust legislation. The present officers 
of the lycague are as follows : 

President.— K. C. WILLISON, 47 Baltimore Street, Cumberland, Md. 
First Vice-President.— 0'B,0. A. PERKINS, 15 Court Square, Boston, Mass. 
Second Vice-President.— A. C. MORRISON, Milwaukee, Wis. 
Secretary.— ABBOT BASSETT, 12 Pearl Street, Boston, Mass. 
Treasurer.— K. E. MERGENTHALER, Ohio. 



GOOD ROADS MAGAZINE 

in its present form is discontinued with this issue. 



The new publication 

"L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads" 

will combine the matter heretofore published in the two sep- 
arate periodicals. 

The first issue will appear April fourth and weekly thereafter. 



Op^r)iT)Z of ^i Cbejtrjut Burr. 



AN HONEST LAWYER. 

"I'll not stand your abuse 
any longer, sir, ' ' thundered an 
irate judge who had been vio- 
lently criticized in his rulings 
by a junior counsel. "You 
are fined fift}^ dollars for con- 
tempt of court." 

" If you want to fine me for 
it," was the attorney's reply, 
" fifty dollars won't come any- 
thing near covering it." — 
Town Topics. 



THREE FOOLS. 
There was a business man who failed 

To win the longed-for prize, 
Of riches and prosperity, — 

He did not advertise. 

There w^as a lover once who died, 

Quite wretched, I suppose, 
3ecause all through his life, he was 

Too bashful to propose. 

There w^as another man, ■whose w^ays 

His neighbors greatly pained. 
Because, he didn't know enough 

To go in when it rained. 
All three were fools. But worst of all 

To everybody's ej'es, 
Was he who was a business man, 

And didn't advertise. 

— Cla V Record. 



A CAN CAN JOKE. 

An Englishman said to a 
Boston girl: "What do you 
do with all your vegetables in 
the United States." She re- 
plied, " We eat all we can and 
can all we can't, "^-^.a:. 



A VALUABLE SUGGESTION. 

Ragged Richard (insinuat- 
ingly) — Say, mister, have yer 
got enny suggestions ter make 
ter a feller, w't ain't able ter 
raise er dime ter get shaved 
with?" 

Grumpie (passing on ) — 
Yes; raise whiskers. — Ex. 



GOOD ADVICE. 

If j'ou are tempted to reveal 
A tale some one to you has told 

About another, make it pass. 
Before you speak, three gates of gold. 

These narrow gates — First, Is it true? 

Then, Is it needful ? In your mind 
Give truthful answer. And the next 

Is last and narrowest — Is it kind? 

And if to reach your lips at last 
It passes through these gateways three. 

Then you may tell the tale, nor fear 
What the result of speech will be. 

— The Housekeeper. 



A NATURAL FINANCIER. 

Footman — Say, Jeems, what 
would we do if we found a 
pocketbook with $20,000 that 
the boss had left in the car- 
riage ? Coachman — Do ? We 
wouldn't do nothing at all. 
We'd live on our income. — 
Unidentified. 



EASY ECONOMY. 

"Ivight of my life ! " the young man cried 

A-courting of his lass ; 
"If that's the case," the maid replied, 

" Let us turn down the gas." 




THE SEQUEL. 

(See fiyuspiece in February Number.) 



The^Union 5p^cial. 

Ridden by A. W. W Evans, of New Brunswick, N. J. ' 

TAKES TIAVi^ PRIZE AND THIRD PLACE 

In the ICX)-Mile Road Raceof the Atalanta 
Wheelmen from New York to Princeton 
and return. 

... Get in the Procession and Win. . . . 

For Further Information Address 

UNION CYCLE MFG. CO., 

239 Golun^bus Avenue, Boston* A\ass. 

Branches, Philadelphia and Chicago i Mention good roads. 



DOUBLE f^l M|f>BICYCLES$l5 

BBEEOtl LOADER! 'I IbI^ '^" ^^^^ °'>°''p°'' "'^ ">'" 

tffC r\r\ I^hI BhH ^^ where. Before jou buj send 

RIFLES $1,751 ■■■■■■1P0WELL& CLEMENT CO. 

WATCH ES%/^^#I V^#16GIIlaiiiSt.,Cincinnati,0. 



WILL SELL ON QUALITY 

NOT ON PRICE. 

EAGLE WHEELS for 1895 

Weiqbts, 17 to 23 lbs. 

EAGLE AGENTS. 
FIRST IN THE FIELD; NEVER GET LEFT. 

SiEE— WmGLeIiCYCLE MFG. CO, 

accompanied by lo cents in 

roaTs! "^ ""''" """^ TORRINGTON, CONN. 




flA/VT 
£ar/e.C Bacon. 

/Very XoM 




"The FARREL 




(Blake Pattern) 



5TONE BREAKER. 

Screens, Elevators and Complete Crushing Plants. 

The Standard for 25 years and BEST to-day. 

^FARREL FOUNDRY & MACHINE CO. — 



EARLE C. BACON, Engineer, Havemeyer Building, New York. 

New England Agents, - - S. C. NIGHTINGALE & CHILDS, 134 Pearl Street, Boston,. 

Complete Macadam Road Building Plants. t^.T^'^^Xx^l l'r^:i\^ ^^^$^t''t^ 

Drills, etc. Horse and Steam Road Rollers, Engines and Boilers. Competent Engineer furnished foe 
locating and advising. Send for Catalogue. Mention Good Roads. 



Stone Crnsher and Engine 




The WILLIAMS 

Patent Steel Stone Crusher. 

Built portable for Township, Village and Con- 
tractors' use, or for quarry work. 
We also manufacture 

PORTABLE ENGINES, 
SCREENS and ELEVATORS. 



For full particulars, address 

St. Johnsville Agricultural W'ks 

ST. JOHNSVILLE, N. Y. 



tl^^ East I/iDiA ® 
STICK 



For Sale by aU Cycle Dealers. 



Prince Wells, 

LOUISVILLE, KY. 

Sole Irrjporter. 




HIGH CLASS 

ENGRAVERS 
OF DRAWINGS 
IN LINE OR WASH 



IMusfrations 
in this Publication 
were made by os 



Construction and Improvement of 

ROADS and PAVEMENTS 

A SPECIAIvTY. 

A. T. BYRNE. 

Civil Engineer and j361 Fulton Street, 

Surveyor BROOKLYN, N. Y. 

Mention "Good Roads." 

F. A. DUNHAM, Civil Engineer 

And Expert in Road and Street Improvements. 

Engineer of the famous Union Co. N. J. Road Sys- 
tem, and the Pioneer Brick Pavements in Western 
New York Cities. Consulting Engineer in the de- 
sign and construction of sewerage systems and 
General Municipal Improvements. Particular 
attention given to the laying out and permanent 
improvement of County Roads. 

Main-Office, 109 Park Avenue-' PLAINFIELD N.J. 




Tliere Are No Better 
SADDLES Tlian 

HUNT SADDLES. 



HUNT MFG. CO., Westboro, Mass. 



Mention "Good Roads. 



THE FARMER'S HANDY WAGON. 



Width Of Tire, 6 in< 
H "J" i f Bolster, 
oO In. 




Thisis jnstthe 
Tvagon for your 
. farm, whetbcr it 
' be wet, sandy or 
side hill. Send ns yonr address on a 
jj ^s postal card, and we wi(l mail yon free 
^ — a book of photographs, showing how the 
C&rmers in ev^ry State in the L'nion are using this wagon. 

We wish you or your son for our agent, to take orders In your 
neighborhood. Apply for agency, and we will show you how you j^| 
can make money and not interfer" Tith your farm work. 



A BEAUTIFUL 
BOOK FREE. 



1402 



Write to JhE FARMER'S HANDY WAGON CO. 

MASONIC TEiVIPLE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, OR FLORENCE. ALABAMA^ 



Mention Good Roads. 




"Brennan" Breaker the Best 

CRUSHES FASTER. 
/ LESS REPAIRS. 

USES LESS POWER. 

/ Capacities, 8 to 150 TONS per HOUR. 

YODNG-BRENNAN CRUSHER CO, 

42 Cortlandt St., NewVork City. 



Please mention "Good roads. 



Bicycle Combi- 
nation Lock. 

Keyless; nickeled; lightest 
in market. Every rider 
needs it. For sale by all 
dealers, or 50 cts. postpaid. 
PACKARD & CARTER MFG. 
CO., ' Maiden, Mass. 
Agents Wanted. 




The n ^ ^If PT T FY C(\ Springfield, 

STEAM IROAD ROLLERS 

Steam Asphalt Rollers 

TAR 




HEATING TANKS. 



STREET CONTRACTORS' SUPPLIES. '^^ 
Please mention Good Roads. 




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Subscriptions and Renewals, 



A SPLENDID OFFER. 



^end us 75 cents and we will send you 

Bicycling World, i year; ^ 

80 Selected Halftones of America; V 

Binder for the World; J ^^ ^®" ^" 

The 80 FAC=SiniLE PHOTOS OF AMERICA are II x S3, 
and are selected for their beauty and interest. They cover 
the Continent from Alaska to the Gulf. Also include splendid 
set of Halftones of THE WHITE SQUADRON— Eighteen mod= 
©rn ships of war. 

|;yThe above Offer is tcJ New Subscribers and also 
Renewals. ^^^ 

HOW TO REniT. — Don't send Postage Stamps; send 
Check, Post Office or Express Order. If you send coin, cut 
holes the size of coins in thick card and paste paper over 
both sides; in that way it is likely to come through safe. 

The above offer speaks for itself, and as the Photos of 
America are limited in number it will be a case of first come 
first served. 

En case you want the BICYCLING WORLD only, we wiltt 
send it to you for ONE YEAR ON RECEIPT OF 50 CENTS. 

Address 

WHEELMAN COMPANY, 

167 Oliver Street, BOSTON, MASS. 



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Columbia Bicycles 




THIS YEAIR 



ILL FOR 



$100. 



4 ^ I ^HIS is from 20 to 33 1-3 per cent, lower than 
<§' _L last year. The new Columbias represent the 
worlds highest attainment in bicycle construction. 
Other makers may say they cannot produce the 
highest grade of bicycle for $100. Maybe they can't. 
We can. It is the superb Columbia plant and ac- 
cumulated Columbia experience that make this 
year's peerless Columbia possible at $100. 



POPE MFG. CO., 



BOSTON. 
PROVIDENCE. 



FACTORIES AND GENERAL OFFICES, 

HARTFORBp COMo 



NEW YORK. 



CHICAGO. 
BUFFALO. 




( 



. Any Columbia agent will send you a Columbia Catalogue — 4 cents 
for postage — free if you call. The book tells fully of all the new | 
Columbias and their equipment. Also of Hartford Bicycles, ^80 $60 
^50 — the best of lower-priced machines. 



/^Sltt^S^ 



«i*s=-^y^<^^ 




PrMS of the WHEELMAN CO., Boston. 



■i 



3 9999 05985 749 8 



JAN 8 \m